A common refrain among conservatives is that the soldiers have died for our rights. One way of looking at that is to scoff, because our rights have only eroded over the last 100 years or more. But there is another way to look at it. While so many rights have been lost, we have earned a lot of new rights even just recently.

Here are a few of our recently-earned rights:
1. The right to self-determine your sex and use the bathroom and lockerroom of your choice.
2. The right to marry someone of your own sex.
3. The right to free or reduced-cost health insurance if you qualify.

Here are a few rights that are not-so-recent, but are still innovations of American freedom and/or the Communist Manifesto.
1. The right of a woman to tear her unborn baby limb from limb.
2. The right to retire on Social Security.
3. The right to send your kid to a government school paid for by your neighbors.

None of those were rights when the Revolutionary War was won. None of those missing rights were listed as grievances in the Declaration of Independence.

So, dear conservative, if you want to say the soldiers have died for our rights, are you sure it’s not a sin to serve in the U.S. military? Is it possible for a soldier fighting in Iraq to choose to fight for freedom of speech (as an example), but not for the right to abortion? Are you sure they’re fighting on the right side?

When the regular people of Germany sent their young men off to fight in World War II, were they intending to do evil? Did they realize that they were evil, and they were on the wrong side and trying to ruin the world? Of course, not. They were regular people trying to do the right thing. They thought they were doing good, or at least that serving their country was a good thing. Maybe they just weren’t thinking very much. They sure weren’t thinking biblically.

Are you thinking very much? Is America really the good guys? How many babies have to be murdered before you consider the possibility that this isn’t a morally good country? Are we fighting just wars? Are we protecting innocent lives?

I believe it’s possible to live a Christian life in this country while the country goes off the moral deep end, but part of living that Christian life requires not working a government job (at any level, unless your purpose is to sabotage it), not serving in the military, not standing for the national anthem, and not pledging allegiance to the flag. We all question the wisdom and morality of those who supported the Third Reich. Don’t fall into the same trap as them.

There is much good about America, but singing the praises of this country isn’t fighting evil. What will help is recognizing the evil and fighting it.