By Legislative Liaison Carolyn Martin

Don’t Rewrite History!

We just celebrated the 244th anniversary of the United States of America’s Independence Day. The colonists were proud British citizens and lived for decades under the increasing despotism of King George. After exhausting every means available to remedy the situation, they declared their independence by submitting “to a candid world” a list of 27 usurpations. Unfortunately, during the debating of the declaration, this charge against King George had been removed: 

“He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither.”

A compromise with evil had been made, setting our country on a course toward a Civil War which culminated in over 620,000 lives lost and with the adoption of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments to our Constitution. Segregation and discrimination continued. Martin Luther King, Jr., a Christian minister, appealed to the declaration’s statement that “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights…”  His protests and struggle resulted in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 

It has been over a month since the current protests and riots began across the nation. But, I contend, the aim of these struggles is not to right the wrongs of the past, but to remove them from our memory and set us on a course toward the overthrow of our government and our Christian way of life. One of the leaders of Black Lives Matter has stated they are trained Marxists.[1] Antifa, another Marxist group, has been planning an insurgency for some time and conveniently took advantage of the incident in Minneapolis to instigate it.[2] 

It seems fairly clear what their goal is. The graffiti plastered on our public buildings are symbols of socialism and anarchy. Karl Marx said, “The first battlefield is to rewrite history … Take away the heritage of a people and they are easily persuaded.” Statues are being defaced or violently removed across the country. Here in Colorado, the Civil War statue at the Capitol in Denver was forcibly removed. A call was put out to remove a statue dedicated to Columbus from Civic Center Park. The City of Denver removed a Kit Carson statue from Colfax Avenue. A new law was passed to replace Columbus Day with Francis Xavier Cabrini Day in Colorado.[3]

A movement called the 1619 Project (that began last August with a series of essays in the NY Times) is a fictional depiction of America’s founding that is being passed off as truth.[4] One of their assertions is that the colonists declared their independence to protect slavery in America and capitalism is depicted as one of the root problems. The rewriting of our history continues in earnest. Soon this version of history will be in every school in America.

“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” (George Orwell)

America continues to struggle to live up to its ideals. This should be no surprise because men’s hearts are depraved.[5] But we have come a long way from the days of slavery. Abandoning our form of government for one that promises bondage is not the answer. We stand in a time not unlike President Lincoln’s time of great division. In his famous House Divided Speech of 1858, he affirmed, “I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided.”[6] It is up to us to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8) and to not let this nation founded in the liberty of Christ to fall. Let us not be the nation who rejects truth and must live under His wrath. 

Trusting in the mighty power and grace of Jesus,
Carolyn Martin, CHEC Legislative Liaison
carolyn@chec.org

[1] https://youtu.be/kCghDx5qN4s?t=343

[2] https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/jun/3/antifa-planned-anti-government-insurgency-george-f/

[3] http://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb20-1031

[4] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html

[5] Jeremiah 17:9-10

[6] https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/teachers/lessonplans/House-Divided-Speech.pdf

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About the Author: Carolyn Martin

Carolyn Martin serves as CHEC’s Homeschool Legislative Liaison, working for you and other liberty-loving families to protect homeschool freedom, parental rights, and religious liberty at the state capitol. Subscribe to the CHEC blog for Carolyn’s regular updates here, learn more about legal issues in Colorado here, and donate to support Homeschool Freedom here. Contact Carolyn directly at carolyn@chec.org.