(Summary of the content contained in Session 1 of Seminar 4 of the Healing of America Seminar Series)

Individual Freedom — Foundation of Good Government

As we learned in Seminar 3, America has been led dramatically off course from the original intent of the Founding Fathers. This abdication of our true Manifest Destiny has led to virtually all of the greatest political, economic, moral, and social problems that we are facing in America today. Only by restoring our Constitution, family and community relationships, education system, state governments, and individual freedoms can we hope to secure freedom, prosperity, and peace for ourselves and future generations.

The task that lies ahead is great, and restoring each major aspect of American life will require many miracles. The great patriot and former Secretary of Agriculture under the Dwight D. Eisenhower Administration, Ezra Taft Benson, spoke extensively of our need to justify God’s intervention in our behalf. In his patriotic speech called “Righteousness Exalteth a Nation“, Secretary Benson outlined four steps that may qualify us for heaven’s help if enough Americans will commit themselves to the message:

1. We must both as individuals and as a nation, look to God as our Maker and as the source of our freedoms.
2. We must make the creation of quality family life a high priority in our lives.
3. We must become informed and knowledgable citizens.
4. We must become actively involved in supporting good, wise, and honest people for public office and assume an active part in improving our communities.

We believe that by turning our hearts back to God and recognizing Him as the source of our freedoms and blessings, our faith can justify His intervention and our efforts to restore our individual freedoms may be sustained and magnified by God Almighty.

The Family — Foundation of the Nation

Seminar 4 explains several examples of ways parents and children can work together to make quality family life a high priority. These examples include:

• The Constitution of the Home
• Become a patriotic family
• Build personal “I Love America” libraries
• Teach self-reliance
• Establish effective patriotic learning habits
• Ways families can work together to help heal themselves, their communities, and the country
  • Get out of debt
  • Become proactive and involved locally
  • Strengthen our marriages
  • Create a wholesome atmosphere in the home
  • Serve friends and neighbors as messengers of freedom

As mentioned previously, we believe that one significant and unique way that we can promote quality family life is through the use of Family Constitutions. This method of organizing and articulating expectations, responsibilities, and consequences is extremely useful in preventing conflict, teaching personal responsibility, and resolving conflicts that do occur. Seminar 4 provides a template for Family Constitutions and includes the following sections:

• Preamble
• Article 1: Powers and Specifications for Family Councils
• Article 2: The Executive Branch
• Article 3: The Patriarchal Judiciary
• Bill of Rights