Loss of Trust + Loss of Faith in Government = Loss of Reliability

The other week, President Obama ironically said, “If people can't trust not only the executive branch but also don't trust congress, and don't trust federal judges, to make sure that we're abiding by the Constitution with due process and rule of law, then we're going to have some problems here.”

 

According to the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, “trust in the federal government remains mired near a historic low, while frustration with government remains high.”  In addition, a “majority of the public says that the federal government threatens their personal rights and freedoms.”

 

What has contributed to this distrust?  The Benghazi cover-up, the IRS fiasco, the Justice Department's monitoring of reporters, the commandeering of phone records of private citizens in the name of national security, “data mining,” the so-called “kill list,” drones with the power to spy and kill, the proliferation of surveillance cameras, DNA swabs after arrests, Obamacare, unrestrained spending and unending debt.  More and more people believe the federal government is encroaching on our civil liberties; they have exceeded their constitutional boundaries … reaching into our public schools, colleges and universities; our wombs and wallets.  Citizens are seeing that the government does few things well … at our expenses.

 

A loss of some privacy was supposed to be the price we had to pay for security following the events of 9-11.  In the decade that has followed, we have an “on the one hand, but on the other hand” attitude about security.  On the one hand we want to be safe; on the other hand we don't like government intruding on our rights … because once we've lost them, they will be difficult to regain.

 

One of our Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson said, “Freedom is lost gradually from an uninterested, uninformed, and uninvolved people.”  And the father of our Constitution, James Madison said, “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution ... are few and defined.  Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.”

 

The distrust for the federal government is undeniably on the rise … for many valid reasons.  The closer it gets to our personal rights and freedoms, the greater the disbelief will become.

 

Unless the federal government moves away from a culture of corruption to a climate of trust the ‘values gap’ will only widen and we will completely lose our core values as a nation; and further stimulate a loss of faith in the integrity of our country. 

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel