(This is an edited version of the acceptance speech I gave at the Constitution Party National Convention in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, June 26, 2004. The entire speech will soon be available on both cassette and DVD.)
Part Two
The Man
Michael Peroutka is the right man for America because he represents the right party and the right principles. Michael knows that our rights do not come from government, but that they come from God. Michael's theme, "Honor God, Defend the Family, Restore the Republic" properly summarizes this principle.
If an American President was truly pro-life, he would lead the nation to outlaw abortion on demand! Michael Peroutka will do just that!
If an American President was truly pro-family, he would never give favored treatment to homosexuals. He would, furthermore, uphold the constitutional provision that requires the President to ensure that every state has a republican form of government. This means he would never submit to tyrannical, activist judges who would attempt to redefine the family.
If an American President truly believed his oath of office, he would never promote the passage of unconstitutional, Orwellian acts such as the egregiously misnamed USA Patriot Act, which has done more to eviscerate the Bill of Rights, especially the Fourth Amendment, than anything that I can ever recall in my lifetime.
If an American President truly believed his oath to the Constitution, he would never invade another country without a formal declaration of war by Congress. The truth is, neither George Bush nor John Kerry has any intention of upholding his oath to the constitution, but you can be sure Michael Peroutka will!
The Miracle
I hear some say, "Why waste your vote on a third party candidate? Isn't a vote for Michael Peroutka a wasted vote?"
First, let me respond by saying, this is not a communist country (yet). No party owns our vote. Furthermore, our vote is a sacred trust. In His providence, God has granted to us the ability to choose those who would serve us in government. As such, this is a sacred trust between our conscience and God.
Secondly, those who vote for either major party candidate, whether it be G.W. Bush or John Kerry, are the ones who are truly wasting their votes, because by voting for either, they are voting for more socialism, bigger government, less freedom, and increased globalism. Therefore, a vote for Michael Peroutka is the only vote that is not wasted!
I have had other well meaning friends say to me, "Chuck, he can't win!" To that I would like to respond by saying, winning and losing is not our business - it is God's!
I am afraid that many Christians, especially my fellow pastors, somehow believe that when it comes to politics, it is our job to play God. Yet, we don't accept this attitude in any other venue of life. However, when it comes to politics, we suddenly feel God needs our help; we suddenly believe it is up to us to decide the things that are duly given only to Him.
I am reminded of King David when he said, "The battle is the Lord's." I doubt seriously that whenever young David, before he was king, who could not even wear the armor offered to him by King Saul, went to face the giant with nothing but a stone and sling, paid any attention to the "good Christian brethren" of his day when they said to him, "Surely, you can't win."
Instead, David said, "The battle is not mine; the battle is the Lord's, and who is this uncircumcised Philistine to stand against the armies of God?" So, while the rest of the army cowered in fear, that one man stood on the field of battle and committed his future into the hands of God, and God did what only God can do: He gave David a great victory!
That same spirit is the spirit of America. Our nation was built on this kind of courageous, unflinching spirit. During our war for independence, John Quincy Adams said, "Duty is ours, results are God's." I submit to you that the only thing that any of us can do is to do our duty, and leave the results with God.
Tell those men on Bunker Hill, "You cannot win." Tell those men at the Alamo, "You cannot win." Furthermore, those preachers who condemn Roy Moore and who laugh at Michael Peroutka should tear the stories of Daniel, and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and a host of other stories in the Word of God, out of heir Bibles, for they do not practice what they preach when they say such things. The American tradition is that we are willing to stand for right and for righteousness; let the consequences be what they will!
How have we reached this position of compromise and cowardice? Why have we acquiesced and surrendered our American heritage and our Christian convictions? As a pastor, I think I am qualified to speak on this topic.
In my opinion, the chief culprit rests behind the sacred pulpits of America. I am ashamed to say it, but I believe that the majority of the men of God, the pastors of our churches across America, have become cowards. These men who have become ear ticklers, who put their fingers to the wind to see which way it is blowing in order to decide what and how to speak, are a disgrace to the colonial preachers who led the moral and righteous fight in our war for independence.
Not only should they tear the story of Daniel out of the Bible, they should never again preach on the story of John the Baptist. I would remind my brethren that John the Baptist was not beheaded because he preached the Gospel. He was beheaded because he meddled in politics when he told the king it was unlawful to commit adultery with his brother's wife.
Need I remind my brethren that Jesus said of John that there was never a greater man born of women than he. Now I don't know about anyone else, but I'll take the Word of God over the word of a cowardly preacher any day of the year!
Now, if Jesus was right about John the Baptist, does that not serve as an indictment against the preachers of America today who refuse to call the king's sin to the attention of the people? Our early American preachers were not cowards, and our early American politicians did not expect them to be.
Now, if Jesus was right about John the Baptist, does that not serve as an indictment against the preachers of America today who refuse to call the king's sin to the attention of the people? Our early American preachers were not cowards, and our early American politicians did not expect them to be.
I've often been asked why our preachers are so cowardly. Some say that it's because of the 501c3 tax exemption. Of course, there could be some truth to that. Although, I will tell you this, I personally believe that the 501c3 tax-exempt status is merely a tree that preachers are using to hide behind.
The problem, ultimately, is not the tax-exempt status of the church; the problem is the cowardly heart of the preacher in the pulpit. If through some marvelous act, some wave of the wand, you were able to remove the tax-exempt status as an issue in this debate, and thereby cut down the tree that they hide behind, they would quickly run to another tree in order to find solace and peace. The problem is not the tree. The problem is the cowardice of the man who hides behind it! We need men of God in the pulpits who are willing to preach the truth come what may!
I really believe this, too: the problem in our churches is that our preachers are primarily afraid of their own congregants. Preachers know that when they get up and begin to speak the truth that they are going to offend some of their own flock and perhaps lose some of their own sheep. It is not the tax-exempt status they are afraid of; they are afraid of offending their own congregations. And when the day comes that the preacher fears his congregation, he is no longer a man of God, he is a hireling.
I do not mean this braggadociously: God knows my heart. But in the 29 years of my ministry at Crossroad Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida, it has not always been an easy road. More than once I have had to stand in front of my people and take positions that were highly controversial, and more than once (and my wife is here as a testimony to the truth of what I am saying) when I mounted the pulpit, I took with me my suitcase, and I said to my congregation, "If when I am done speaking you would like to fire me, feel free to do so. But for the next hour you are going to hear the truth."
Ladies and gentlemen, I firmly believe that if the preachers of America would demonstrate in their own churches Sunday by Sunday, month by month, and year by year, real courage, they could change the course of America!
It is these kinds of principles and these kinds of courageous Americans who are assembled in this room and that will, with God's help, turn this country around. I, too, am glad to be home.
Furthermore, I am so glad that God has raised up men like Howard Phillips and now a man like Michael Peroukta to lead such a courageous group of people as you.
Accordingly, I am honored to accept Michael's invitation and your endorsement to become the Constitution Party's candidate for Vice President of these United States of America. I humbly ask for your prayers, knowing that, as Ben Franklin said, "without [God] we shall succeed no better than the builders of Babel," but also knowing that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
Thank you.
© Chuck Baldwin
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