It’s hip these days to extol the benefits of democracies and their superiority over other forms of government. In fact, since 9/11 over 6,000 of our service men and women have died as our nation’s leaders have sought to export democracy to hostile parts of the world.

To be fair, in most instances a democracy truly is superior to other forms of government. However, there is an ugly side to a democracy, or the rule of the majority, and we can see that ugliness on full display throughout the ages.   Whether it’s Jim Crow laws or the election of a monster like Adolph Hitler, history illustrates many examples of “democracies gone wild” and the consequences when the majority affirms wrong choices.

Recently I was reading through the Bible in the book of Numbers in the Old Testament and I was reminded of the ugly side of a democracy and the painful consequences of the majority opinion.  (See Numbers 13-14 for the full story.)

The Israelites had exited Egypt and after a year in the wilderness they were growing restless. The land God had promised to them was just a few days walk away. But prior to entering and taking the land, a Special Ops team of twelve men was sent in to spy out the promised land.  They found the land to be what God had promised them and all they had dreamt of.  However, ten of the twelve men were fearful of the inhabitants.  Upon their return, those ten spies shared their apprehensions and warned against entering the land. However, the dissenting opinion expressed by the two remaining spies (Caleb and Joshua) was that victory belonged to Israel, if the people would simply trust God for the outcome.

In democratic fashion the Israelites, numbering well over a million, overwhelmingly rejected the right path, choosing to side with the ten spies. And in that one fateful choice, they were condemned to forty years of wandering in the wilderness, destined to die there rather than enjoy the blessings that had been promised to them by God.

Democracy Won, but the people and nation Lost!

History teaches us that in the final analysis, a democracy can only be as virtuous as the people who direct it. And virtue must be grounded in Truth that transcends emotions, political correctness, polls, and political parties. When a people’s Truth is anchored in values that are self evident, whether referred to as natural law or God’s law, and when those people align their votes with those values, then and only then will a democracy flourish, protect all its citizens, and provide the stability and liberty to which most men and women aspire.

Our Founding Fathers recognized these truths when they sought to “…secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity…”

Only as we individually align our votes with God’s laws will we restore our democracy, which is technically a Constitutional Republic, to the original design of our Founders.

In so doing the Blessings of Liberty will be secured.