At the close of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, a lady asked Benjamin Franklin as he left Independence Hall on the final day, “Well, Doctor, what have we got-a Republic or a Monarchy? He answered, “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

Since that day there have been times when it was doubtful that America, “Conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal” would be able to “long endure”. Clearly, we are confronted with two very serious challenges to our nation. They are the culture war from within and the Islamic terrorists from without.

Take, for instance, the culture war. In Bill O’Reilly’s new book, Culture Warrior, he describes “two disparate worldviews that are competing for the very soul of our nation. On one side are the “traditionalists,” those who know that America is a noble enterprise, a beacon of hope and light for the world, and who understand that our belief in God and our commitment to good has made us the greatest nation on earth.” On the other side, Mr. O’Reilly writes, are the secular-progressives (S-Ps), who want a drastic restructuring of the nation along the lines of the secular nations of Europe.

We do not have to depend upon our imaginations to see what would happen if America, likely the most religious nation in the Western World, should become secular. We have a clear example in what is happening in the European nations. The great cathedrals, built to honor God by believers in Jesus Christ, stand as monuments to a faith that is now gone. As CBN reporter Dale Hurd describes it, “While Christianity is still very relevant in the United States, and is exploding in the developing world, Europe has sunk below the unbelief and is now labeled “Christophobic” and “anti-religious”.

In France, for example, only one person in twenty ever darkens the church doors and this is typical of the rest of Europe. Only 10 percent consider religion as being very important, and for all Europeans that figure is 21 percent. In the nations that have established state churches, unbelief is very high even among the clergy. Sociologist Rodney Stark of Baylor University found that in Britain one out of five Anglican pastors does not believe in the resurrection of Christ and only 60 percent believe in the virgin birth. (That is just a little lower than their church members.) “The attendance is very low,” explains Dr. Stark, “and one of the reasons they don’t go is [that] the people running them don’t care if they don’t go.”

Instead of reporting the facts and letting the public decide, the media in Europe continue to mock America’s failure to advance to a higher level of sophistication. Vince Easterman, a French pastor who grew up in Australia, said, “This last week in prime time television on one of the French national stations, they had a program on God in America. And again it was the Pentecostal Christians in the states, and they were ridiculed and treated as simple minded naïve people. But absolutely nothing can be said against Muslims, of course, because there’s always retaliation.” The British Economist Magazine wrote, “To Europeans, religion is the strangest and most disturbing feature about (America).

Dr. Stark wrote in The Victory of Reason that Europe owes everything – its culture, its freedom, its science, its wealth – to Christianity. But the European leaders and the media are determined to keep the Christian faith out of public life. He went on to predict, “Europe is going to get more religious than it is either because of a revival of Christianity or because they go Muslim”.

One writer described Europe as “A majority of Christian atheists and a minority of Muslim fanatics”— certainly an exaggeration, but the spiritual vacuum in the lives of the people is bound to be filled by one religious faith or another. Such a void existed in the life of Muriel DeGauque, a Belgium woman and former drug addict. She converted to Islam, went to Iraq and blew herself up trying to kill American soldiers. Pastor Easterman said, “I have been an eyewitness to France becoming increasingly Islamized. There is no longer an ability to morally resist a strong culture like Islam coming into the country.”

The religious war in America has been different. While Europe has lost its faith by default, most Americans have remained faithful. While our society welcomes all who will accept the principle of equality and freedom, one branch of Islam, the Wahhabbi, is exploiting that freedom to take over the moderate Muslim mosques. In his testimony before a Senate hearing, Stephen Schwartz gave detailed information:

“The Wahhabi ideological structure in Saudi Arabia perceived this as an opportunity to fill a gap – to gain dominance over an Islamic community in the West with immense potential for political and social influence. But the goals of this operation, which was largely successful, were multiple.

First, to control a significant group of Muslim believers.

Second, to use the Muslim community in the U.S. to pressure U.S. government and media, in the formulation of policy and in perceptions about Islam. This has included liaison meetings, “sensitivity” sessions and other public activities with high-level administration officials, including the FBI director.

Third, to advance the overall Wahhabi agenda of “jihad against the world” — an extremist campaign to impose the Wahhabi dispensation on the global Islamic community, as well as to confront the other religions. This effort has included the establishment in the U.S. of a base for funding, recruitment.and support of terror operations in the U.S. and abroad.”

Radical Muslims have openly declared that they have every intention of wiping Israel off the map, dominating Europe and the Middle East and defeating America. We came much closer to losing WW II than most of us realize but, in the opinion of many political analysts, we are now facing a greater danger and it will not go away in our lifetime. Our present need is to identify the terrorists while being careful to protect loyal, patriotic Muslim-Americans because they are also targeted by the terrorists.

Alexis De Tocqueville came from France to America in the 1830’s to discover the reasons for the incredible success of this new nation. He reported: “I sought for the key to the greatness and genius of America in her harbors…; in her fertile fields and boundless forests; in her rich mines and vast world commerce; in her public school system and institutions of learning. I sought it in her democratic Congress and in her matchless Constitution. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”