Common Sense: An uncommon book review(Part 7)

We are almost at an end of our look at this most important writing which was crucial counsel in the days leading up to the American Revolution. 
Paine writes, "It is the good fortune of many to live distant from the scene of present sorrow; the evil is not sufficiently brought to their doors to make them feel the precariousness with which all American property is possessed."  And is this not the case even today, where the government tramples on the rights of its citizens, possessions of the people including property and livelihood are seen as the pillage ground of the state instead of the inheritance of one's posterity.  The attitude is along the lines that if it doesn't affect you personally, then it really is no concern at all. 
He continues later on, "tis not in the power of Britain or of Europe to conquer America, if she doth not conquer herself by delay and timidity."  And you can add to this timidity a spirit of apathy, and a rejection of the God that has so bountifully blessed this land and its people.  I agree with Paine, the civil government and its rule over life and liberty from Washington D.C. cannot conquer America unless America first cedes the right to fight for itself.
Much later, Paine writes, "America is only a secondary object in the system of British politics.  England consults the good of this country no further than it answers her own purposes."  Again, is this not what we see today, where the civil government is concerned with the citizenry only when it is looking out for its own purposes and craving for additional power.  Make no mistake citizen, Americans are only a secondary object of our own elected representatives and we have only ourselves to blame in that we do not hold them accountable for treating us with disdain. 
In encouraging action against the British, Paine was looking for the following outcome.  "Securing freedom and property to all men, and above all things, the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience,"  If only he could see where we ended up today, a land where securing freedom and property for the individual takes a back seat to the civil government appropriating the rights and liberties of the citizens to itself.  Read the next part of his statement again, "ABOVE ALL THINGS..." and recognize that what was most important to Paine is in the process of being thoroughly deconstructed.  I know I am repeating myself again, but when a State Supreme Court Justice can say the following, and the U.S. Supreme Court does not see fit to counteract their testimony, then no individual is free to act according to the dictates of their conscience, NO MATTER WHAT YOU BELIEVE.  Oh yes, some may say, those Christians will get their way for not bowing to the homosexual agenda and being given platitudes from the bench such as "it is the price of citizenship" when being asked to violates the dictates of their own conscience.  But make no mistake, a civil government that finds no issue with asking Christians to violate their conscience in this instance will have no problem asking any other citizen to violate their own conscience if deemed to be in the best interest of those in power.  When that time comes, as it has historically when cultures devolve into totalitarianism, those who stood on the side of oppression will have no one to blame but themselves.