The First Amendment of the Constitution states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

The genesis and purpose of the First Amendment, as it pertains to religion, was to protect people and churches from the State, not the other way around. But the Christian underpinnings of America can not be allowed to stand if the Left is going to reach its objective of making America a godless nation that places man’s baser instincts above the holy Word of God.

The end result? No-fault-divorce, abortion, gay marriage, all manner of financial support for those who can but will not work, schools that no longer teach but rather indoctrinate, and another generation of statists who believe free higher education, a high paying job, and a luxury home are "rights." And the list goes on.

Through an evolution pursued by liberal Progressives and sanctified by a Supreme Court that all too often plays politics, the clear intentions of our Founding Fathers has morphed into "the separation of church and state," a phrase not found in the Constitution.

The hypocrisy of the Left is mind-numbing. They demanded the State neuter Christians, and then turned the Constitution on its head to do so. Hence we have the invention of subjective "hate speech" that discourages pastors from speaking the Word of God from the pulpit on subjects like homosexuality. This denies our right to free speech and exercise of our religious beliefs.

Worse yet, while they are demanding to be "shielded" from our country’s Christian foundation, they, in contradiction to the First Amendment, have imposed a religion on the rest of us. It’s called secular humanism. They are as devoted to their "religion" as we are to ours. We worship at the altar of Almighty God. They worship at the altar of the State.

There is a dynamic confrontation taking place and in the balance is the future of our country. We are at a critical juncture, in every sense. For instance, even most of those on the Left have to admit now that we can no longer sustain the financial irresponsibility we have wallowed in all these many years. What they have trouble admitting is that our tenuous position is in large part because of their quasi-socialist beliefs, one of which is to remove God from every fiber of the tapestry that spells A-m-e-r-i-c-a.

Whatever direction we choose, we must choose. As the Bible correctly notes, "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." (Matthew 6:24 NKJV)

When I was a child back in the fifties we were taught right from wrong. Now children are taught that the world is made up of gray areas. Such muddling allows secular humanism to trump the Word of God, which then allows all manner of perversions as well as the death of common sense. Making the point, government strongly encouraged, and ultimately demanded that banks make housing loans to virtually everyone, some of who had no job. Even worse, in some cases the mortgages were in excess of the home’s value.

Common sense says you can’t make immediately underwater loans to people without the ability to repay without substantial negative repercussions - but our government said not to worry, they would insure any loss. Citizens bought the lie, forgetting that we are the government, so the government’s loss is our loss. This is a classic example of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

So with bailout after bailout we’ve mortgaged our future with nothing to show for it, except a debt that cannot be paid -- and never will be. Yet the Bible says, "Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law." (Romans 13:8) If only we had listened to God!

This, of course, is only one example of what happens to a nation that turns its back on the teaching of the one true God. It is ultimately destroyed.

How sad that we have stood by and let God be banished from what was once our proud Christian nation. How hypocritical that we call on Him when disaster strikes, as we did in the aftermath of 9/11.

Some may say that we have not turned our back on God. But that false claim can be made only by a secular humanist with an agenda. For the rest of us, the standard is simple and direct and disposes of the "gray-area" theory that we’ve come to embrace. Jesus said, "He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad." (Matthew 12:30) America is either with the Lord or we are against Him. We cannot be lukewarm on this. America cannot set God aside, to be used only in an emergency, for if we do we become His enemy by not standing with Him 24/7.

America, as the Bible suggests, is being "scattered abroad," and it’s because we have made the wrong choices. Thankfully God is lovingly longsuffering -- "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9) But while the Bible says no one knows when the end will come, we are, in the meantime, playing Russian-Roulette with this country that we love so dearly.

Ask yourself this: Is it better for America to be with God or against Him?