By ALLEN FARLEY / Community Columnist

Do you think most Alabamians today really understand what was going on 238 years ago in 1776? Are our children capable of understanding why we continue to celebrate what was so important to our colonial ancestors in 1776?

Can Americans in 2014 grasp the oppression and tyranny that our colonial ancestors endured? If the current socialist ideology continues to grow in our nation’s capital, what will be said of “our generation” 238 years from now?

Think about the impact Senator Lyndon Johnson’s 1954 congressional amendment has had in keeping certain Christian congregations silent on political races? Johnson’s amendment “absolutely prohibits” churches and all other 501(c)(3) charities from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office if they are to remain tax-exempt. Do you really believe all churches in America stay out of politics?

I believe the 1954 Lyndon Johnson amendment intentionally placed a hand over the mouth of a large portion of the “In God We Trust” segment of “We the People.”

I also believe that God began placing certain pastors in his churches in the early 1700s to get his people spiritually ready for the battlefields of colonial America and beyond. “The Great Awakening” was a period of great revivalism that spread throughout the colonies in the 1730s and 1740s. Godly men boldly taught our ancestors to rely on a personal relationship with Jesus Christ for eternal salvation and not on church dogma and doctrine. Wow! They were told they did not need an endorsement to receive eternal life.

Our colonial ancestors had to fully understand their individual dependence on God before they could fully understand the importance of our nation’s independence from Great Britain.

2 Peter 2:19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.

God Bless America!!!

Allen Farley represents District 15 in the Alabama House of Representatives. His email address is allenfarley@bellsouth.net