We used to be a nation more-or-less dominated by Christians--or at least, the Christian ethos. The unbelieving super-wealthy (remember, Jesus said that it was very difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God) have always tried to control the nation, to their benefit. Through intermediaries, they employed bribery, blackmail, economic manipulation, lies, smears, canny persuasion and thuggery of one sort or another, to attempt and finally succeed in putting a bit in the mouth of the powerful economic horse that, by the early part of the 20th century, the U.S. had become. Here is an article which discusses the workings of those who would control government officials--often to the detriment of their citizens: PRESIDENT WILSON BLACKMAILED - Historicist.com The Protestant Interpretation of Biblical Prophecy. The Historical Alternative
The Manipulations of 1913
In 1913, the adoption of the private Federal Reserve System that year, handed over the control of the nation's money supply to private interests--which was against the U.S. Constitution. The European and American bankers achieved it through chicanery (read The Creature From Jekyll Island by G. Edward Griffin). Jekyll Island was where they met secretly, under pseudonyms, in order to hatch their plot. President Woodrow Wilson, who signed the Federal Reserve Act into law, said later, "I fear I have ruined my country." Thomas Jefferson, among many, had warned about exactly that.
Franklin, Adams and Jefferson vs. The Bankers
The brilliant patriot, Benjamin Franklin, influenced his good friends, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson (the second and third presidents) to adamantly oppose the idea of private central banking in the U.S. Franklin had, on his trips to Europe, seen the economic ravages wrought on the middle and lower classes of Europe, caused by the extreme economic stratification of private central banking. The bankers were a new kind of nobility--building or buying enormous estates, while the middle and lower classes struggled, often in misery, to put food on the table--virtual slaves to the European system.
Franklin, a Pennsylvanian, favored the monetary system which had been in place in the Pennsylvania colony for fifty years prior to the American Revolution. He understood that the control of the issuance of the currency was a critical measure for governments to have, if they were to avoid being ruled by moneyed interests. (It was thought to be so important to the stability of the American Republic that the U.S. Constitution specifically gives the issuance of the currency to the government.) The colonial government of Pennsylvania had issued currency based on the estimated value of all land and industry in the colony--rather than the debt-based system of the central bankers. This currency, widely used throughout the American colonies, was known as "colonial scrip" and the average Pennsylvanian colonist prospered greatly under the system which was inflation/deflation-free. But, the greedy elitist/royalist bankers at the private Bank of England, saw the growing prosperity of the largely middle-class colonies and pushed the British Parliament to outlaw colonial scrip in favor of the British pound (which they controlled through increasing or decreasing the interest rates, causing deflation or inflation at will). The Pennsylvania colony was plunged nearly overnight into unemployment and poverty. To his dying day, Franklin maintained that the real reason for the American Revolutionary War was that rule by Parliament. He insisted that the colonists would have grudgingly put up with an increase in the tax on tea, but taking their system of money away was just too much for the colonists to bear.
Andrew Jackson and the Bankers
But, even after Americans had gained their independence, the European central bankers were not about to give up their plans. Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury under President Washington, an agent of European central bankers, urged the establishment of a private central bank of the U.S. He might have succeeded, had he not been killed in a duel with Thomas Jefferson's vice president, Aaron Burr, over a smear campaign Hamilton had initiated against Burr. However, even then, the struggle against the bankers continued. A little more than three decades later, the dying words of the very popular President, Andrew Jackson were: "I fought the banks." A number of historians believe that an earlier assassination attempt on Jackson's life was put in place by the European central bankers.
Lincoln, Czar Alexander II and the Bankers
Another three decades later, during the U.S. Civil War, (probably instigated by the influence of international bankers) Lincoln resisted them in their usurious demands for 24% to 34% interest on the money he needed to borrow to finance the war. Lincoln instead floated the "greenback dollar" to finance the war, at no interest to the Union government. The powerful, private Bank of England placed editorials in The Times of London, ranting about Lincoln (you can read them online). Here is one of their more outrageous statements: "If that mischievous financial policy, which has its origins in the North American Republic, should become indurated down to a fixture, then that government will furnish its own money without cost. It will pay off debts and will be without a debt. It will have all the money necessary to carry on its commerce. It will become prosperous beyond precedent in the history of civilized governments of the world. The brains and the wealth of all countries will go to North America. That government must be destroyed or it will destroy every monarchy on the globe."
The British Parliament, under unremitting pressure from European central bankers, agreed to send a British naval expeditionary force (along with the same from France) to interrupt the Union trade blockade of the Confederacy. Lincoln heard about their plans and appealed to his friend, Czar Alexander II of Russia (who was also struggling against the bankers' plans to put in place a private central bank in Russia). The Czar was fascinated by the "American experiment" and had urged Lincoln to free the slaves, as he intended to free the serfs from the land, in Russia. Czar Alexander agreed to send a force from the mighty Imperial Navy of Russia to prevent the British and French from disrupting the Union blockade of the Confederacy. When the British and French understood (through their spies in the Union government) that the Russian navy was on the way, they scooted back to Europe. The blockade was thus successful, and the Union was saved. Lincoln well understood that, if the Union had failed, the British and French would be only too ready to retake former colonies and the "American experiment" of "government of the people, by the people and for the people" would have failed. He said as much at the end of his Gettysburg Address. Had Lincoln caved to the interest demands of the European bankers, the U.S. would likely still be making payments on the Civil War debt. Measures have been put in place since 1913 to reduce the amount of interest money handed over to the bankers but they remain in control of the money supply to this day. In the words of a famous central banker, "Give me control of a nation's money supply and I care not who makes its laws." Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth who was, according to some historians, almost certainly an agent of the Bank of England. They know he had several close associates there. Czar Alexander II was also assassinated. In addition, it is known that the European central bankers financed the Bolshevik Revolution that put an end to Romanov rule in Russia. The grandson of Czar Alexander II--Nicholas II--was slaughtered, along with his entire family, by the Bolsheviks. (continued on next post)
There has been a decline in Christianity - I wonder why? When did it change? My older neighbor used to say that it was Hollyweird, and it would seem that they kept pushing the boundaries until every boundary was broken. I think I'm too old-fashioned. We went to the house of someone my husband used to work with one time and I was appalled that all these little kids were sitting there watching a slasher movie. One scene was something I couldn't even watch as an adult, and all those little kids sat there glued to the TV set.