Dr. Johnston’s TEA Party speech, 4-15-10

Those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it.My goal today is to add some urgency to our efforts, to add some urgency to ourprayers. Our greatest enemy today is not Obama. It’s not the socialists inCongress, the liberal activists that serve as judges, it’s not Islamistterrorists, the Communist Chinese, the Federal Reserve, or illegal immigrants.Those who do not learn from history are bound to – what? - repeat it.

The Roman empire coveredthe world with roads, trade, soldiers, and technology. It was a thing of prideto be a Roman citizen. Produce and goods were inexpensive. They were thewealthiest people in the world who conquered all her challengers.

But Romebecame overrun with illegal immigrants, who at first assimilated and worked asservants, but then came so fast that they did not learn the language or adoptthe Roman culture. Romebecame addicted to the cheap labor, and didn’t enforce her immigration laws.Politicians and businesses catered to illegal immigrants.

The highly-trained Roman military, moving rapidly on theiradvanced road system, was over-stretched in conflicts at the boundaries oftheir vast empire. For the military industrial complex, business was booming.

Motivated by the intrusive military presence all over theworld, Attila the Hun was committing terrorist attacks against Rome. The over-extended military could notcatch him.

Rome had a trade deficit,having outsourced most of its grain production to N.Africa. When Vandals captured the area, Rome did not have the resources to retaliate.

The citizens of Romewere on welfare. They were given free bread. Those who lived at the expense ofthe public treasury were more numerous than those who paid into it.

To the taxpaying Romans, tax collectors were more terriblethan the enemy.

The courts were unjust and corrupt. They didn’t follow thelaw.

Adultery and immorality were the norm. Bathhouses werefilled with homosexual and heterosexual lust.

Unwanted and unloved infants were abandoned in fields todie. Some Roman leaders even proposed paying men to stay married and fathermore children, as Rome’s birth rate was dropping too low to sustain theirculture and their quality of life.

The Roman citizen’s heart was not in the home, but in theColiseum, the bathhouse, and the theater. They lived for entertainment. Plays,music, art, and literature – the Romans were intoxicated with entertainingthemselves. Gladiators provided violent entertainment in the Coliseum.

They soon became victims of the kind of violence thatentertained them. (DESCRIBE SACKING OF ROME)

The greatest empire in the history of the world fell inSeptember 4, 476 A.D. The historian Salvian wrote in the fifth century: “ORoman people be ashamed… Let nobody think otherwise, the vices of our bad liveshave alone conquered us.” The proud and haughty Romanempire fell into the dustbin of history, its greatness squanderedand its potential hindered by one thing: sin.

Those who do not learn from history are bound to – what? -repeat it.

Like the Roman empire before its fall, America is being overrun withillegal immigrants. Unlike the immigrants at the founding of our nation, theyare not being assimilated into our culture. 1/3 of federal prison inmates areillegal immigrants, and some of the most violent gangs in California are comprised of illegalimmigrants. They cost our country billions annually. They are a burden on ourwelfare and healthcare systems that we can no longer afford. Does ourgovernment protect our rights by enforcing our immigration laws? On thecontrary, amnesty for illegal immigrants is next on the list of things to dofor our leaders in D.C.

(Eleven-year-old Charity steps onto stage dressed as anillegal alien with broken handcuffs on her wrist.:)

If we do not learn from history, (Charity says) we arebound to repeat it.

Like the Roman empire, thehighly-trained American military is spread out across the globe. Rather thanprotect our borders and act only for our defense, they reside in more 130countries the last time I counted. It’s considered unpatriotic to want to bringthem home. Even the political party that rode into D.C. on the backs of theanti-war activists is leaving them overseas. But worry not – for the militaryindustrial complex, business is booming.

(Eight-year-old James steps on stage dressed like soldier:)

If we do not learn from history, (James) we are bound torepeat it.

Motivated by American military presence in foreign nations,terrorists conspire against us. Our unplugged, porous borders are their allies,and our intrusive military presence all over the world fuels their recruitment.They don’t hate us because we’re a democracy, because we’re free, or because ofthe color of our skin or our religion. According to their fatwas against us,they hate us because we won’t leave them alone.

(Ten-year-old Anna steps onto stage dressed in Muslim burka:)

If we do not learn from history, (Anna) we are bound torepeat it.

Like the Roman empire, we outsource our jobs to corporate interestsoverseas, who aren’t constrained by the minimum wage and other federalregulations associated with doing business in America. With cap and trade andrecently passed healthcare legislation, we’ve given business an even greaterincentive to leave the borders to cut their overhead. This has causeddouble-digit unemployment and a huge, growing trade deficit. In spite of ourincome tax, sales tax, and death tax that consumes up to 40% of our wealth, westill have a 1.6 trillion dollar deficit. We are, in essence, borrowing from China to buy from China. It’s like taking out anothercredit card to pay the minimum on the last credit card you took out. Thecriminal Federal Reserve and their accomplices in crime in Congress aredeliberately printing more dollars to pay for their perks and pork andundeclared wars, inflating the dollar as a result.

(Seven-year-old Daniel steps onto stage dressed likebusinessman with pig mask on carrying a briefcase with the words “Congress” onit:)

If we do not learn from history, (Daniel) we are bound torepeat it.

Like the Roman empirebefore its fall, more and more people subsist on welfare and governmenthandouts. We’re becoming a welfare nation, the largest nanny state since the USSR. Thefederal government is now the nation’s largest employer, and it slated toconsume more than two-fifths of the Gross Domestic Product of the entire nationwithin the next 45 years. They continue to perpetuate ponzi schemes like SocialSecurity, the likes of which landed Bernie Madoff in prison. The CongressionalBudget Office projected that Social Security would operate in the red in 2010and 2011, but with the recession, more Americans have retired than expected.There is no Social Security trust fund – Congress has spent it every year.  The Medicare Board of Trustees in 2009admitted that Medicare is due to completely exhaust the trust fund and gobankrupt in 2017, but that will probably come much sooner since ObamaCare isplanning to rob Medicare of 500 billion dollars.

We’re selling our children as slaves to a government inexchange for money from the public treasury. Those who live at the expense ofthe government are increasing, and those who pay into the public treasury arethe targets of countless federal bureaucrats, regulators, and IRS agents whomake it their living to torment the employers and businessmen who provide jobsto Americans.

(Five-year-old Grace steps onto stage in prison uniform withball-and-chain tied to her ankle:)

If we do not learn from history, (Grace) we are bound torepeat it.

Like the Roman empirebefore its fall, the courts have become unjust and corrupt, making up lawrather than following it. They imagine themselves following the so-calledpenumbras of the constitution rather than obeying their oath to uphold theConstitution as it is written. They find in the right to privacy a right toadultery and a right to kill your unwanted children. Like the Romanempire before its fall, unwanted and unloved children areabandoned to die. Ohioslaughters 30,000 people by abortion every single year, and physician-assistedsuicide is spreading state-by-state. The Republicans are more interested inregulating abortion than in banning it. We trade away the lives of innocentchildren like bartering chips at the table where politicians legislate.

(Three-year-old Elijah steps onto stage dressed as aphysician holding large picture of preborn baby.)

Like the Roman empirebefore its fall, adultery and immorality has become the norm. Premarital sex,adultery, pornography, and homosexuality have made marital fidelity and normalchild-rearing a thing of the past. 68% of our marriages in Muskingum Countyend in divorce, and most children are born out of wedlock.

Like the Roman empirebefore its fall, we’re intoxicated with entertainment from dawn to dust, frommovies and television shows with nudity and adultery, to porn shops that dotthe interstate, to internet, to radio, to smut that lines the check-out linesat the grocery store, to violent entertainment. Like the Romanempire before its fall, our heart’s not in the home, but in ourselfish lusts and desires.

(My wife Elizabeth steps onto stage holding baby Faith:)

Those who don’t learn from history, (Elizabeth) are bound to repeat it.

At the end of the American timeline, will it be said byhistorians: O American people, be ashamed… Let nobody think otherwise, thevices of our bad lives have alone conquered us.

Like the Roman empirebefore its fall, we deserve judgment.

James Madison, our fourth President, said, “We’ve staked ourfuture on our ability to follow the Ten Commandments with all of our heart. Wehave staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power ofgovernment, far from it. We’ve staked the future of all of our politicalinstitutions upon our capacity… to sustain ourselves according to the TenCommandments of God.”

We are losing our freedom because we’ve lost our Christianmorals as a nation, and unless we return to the ways of the God of ourforefathers, we will not see the liberties lost restored, and our children willlose what liberties we have left.

God said to through the prophet Jeremiah in chapter 18: “Atwhat instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, topluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; If that nation, against whom Ihave pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thoughtto do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation andconcerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; If it do evil in my sight, thatit obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I wouldbenefit them.”

Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord, but the wicked,and every nation that forgets God, will be turned into hell. 

Americais in danger of judgment. What do we do? Repent! Pray to God that He willforgive our sin, and will pardon our sins through the shed blood of JesusChrist.

Those who don’t learn from history: (All Johnstons) are bound to repeat it.