{"id":22752,"date":"2017-01-27T03:25:04","date_gmt":"2017-01-27T11:25:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=22752"},"modified":"2017-01-26T11:31:41","modified_gmt":"2017-01-26T19:31:41","slug":"is-america-part-of-a-divine-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2017\/01\/27\/is-america-part-of-a-divine-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Is America part of a divine plan?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In The American Miracle<\/em>, Michael Medved argues that the success of the United States is not based on random \u201chappy accidents.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Early America\u2019s historical events could be seen as a set of dominoes falling conveniently into place, creating a thriving free and democratic nation, but Michael Medved believes there\u2019s a divine hand that helped.<\/p>\n

The Jewish nationally syndicated radio show host has just published his 13th book, The American Miracle: Divine Providence in the Rise of the Republic<\/em> (Crown Forum, 2016), describing a dozen incidents from the 1580s to the American Civil War, in which a moment of crisis was successfully resolved, against great odds, and seemingly by chance.<\/p>\n

\"photo
Michael Medved (photo from twitter.com\/medvedshow)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI think this is the first time someone has approached it from this angle,\u201d he told the Independent<\/em>. \u201cThe best explanation for the emergence of the United States as the dominant economic, military, even cultural power in the world … is not a pattern of happy accidents, because a pattern of happy accidents is still a pattern. The evidence, it seems to me, suggests very strongly that America is a product of intelligent design.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of Medved\u2019s examples is that of Abraham Lincoln surviving six assassination attempts, with the seventh and final one coming only after he freed the slaves. Another such occurrence, according to Medved, involves Confederate General Robert E. Lee\u2019s battle plans, which were etched on a cigar wrapper cover, discarded unknowingly by one of his infantry and later found by a Unionist soldier, radically turning the tide of the war and saving the union.<\/p>\n

Additionally, writes Medved, Napoleon Bonaparte was to take command and possession of Louisiana to protect it against the British, but the harbour uncharacteristically froze over on that April day. It was part of a series of events that led the French conqueror to cede land four times the size of France to the Americans \u2013 later called the Louisiana Purchase \u2013 for the paltry sum of a penny an acre.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the United States \u2013 and with the modern state of Israel \u2013 there are clear moments of creation reflecting acts of will and providential acts of will,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not based on tribe or blood or place of birth. It\u2019s based on conscious decisions by generations of people to be part of this endeavour, and that makes the United States and Israel completely distinct from every other country on earth. It\u2019s a much stronger argument for design rather than evolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Medved\u2019s other books have covered American themes as well, including The Ten Big Lies About America<\/em>; The Shadow Presidents<\/em>, a history of White House chiefs of staff; and Right Turns<\/em>, an autobiography covering his path to becoming a conservative.<\/p>\n

\"bookPart of the reason why he penned this recent book was not only to show that America\u2019s founding had, as he sees it, a little help from above and has changed the world for the better, but \u201cbecause we have lost that sense America is miraculous and astonishing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t look at America as providing grounds for gratitude, then you will look at America as providing grounds for guilt, and that is what our education system emphasizes now: we slaughtered native Americans, we exploited African slaves, we oppressed workers and we enslaved women.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve taken the heroism out of it, taken the nobility out of it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve taken the purpose out of it \u2013 and America is about nothing if it\u2019s not about a sense of purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n

As to why America has been so particularly blessed, Medved posits a theory: the Founding Fathers were philosemites.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn Adams, Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, believed that one of the reasons for America\u2019s distinctive blessings can be found in Genesis, Chapter 12, verse 3,\u201d he said, explaining the section where God says He will bless those who bless Jews, and curse those who curse Jews.<\/p>\n

In fact, he added, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin worked together to create what they hoped would be the great seal of the United States, featuring an image of Moses leading the people across the Red Sea.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe founders themselves,\u201d he said, \u201cinsisted that they were the instruments, rather than the authors, of the design.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dave Gordon<\/strong> is a Toronto-based freelance writer whose work has appeared in more than 100 publications around the world.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In The American Miracle, Michael Medved argues that the success of the United States is not based on random \u201chappy accidents.\u201d Early America\u2019s historical events could be seen as a set of dominoes falling conveniently into place, creating a thriving free and democratic nation, but Michael Medved believes there\u2019s a divine hand that helped. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[784],"tags":[6708,218,3034],"class_list":["post-22752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-intelligent-design","tag-judaism","tag-united-states"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}