Tea Parties - From Boston to DBQ

Last night I was reading an interesting piece that looked back at the original Boston Tea party. The author pointed out that the Tea Act of 1773 (13 Geo III c. 44) was basicly a bailout for the British East India Company. & while I never thought of it in that way, BUT he is right. It was a bailout. Additionally the East India Company Act 1773 (13 Geo. III, c. 63) imposed a series of administrative & economic reforms. Parliament, by doing so, clearly established its sovereignty & ultimate control over the Company. The Auto Industry bailout resulted in the government basicly telling the companies how they had to be run, what divisions to close, what francises to keep etc. Sound familiar folks???????

The East India Company was close to collapse due in part to contractual payments to the British government of 400,000 pounds per year, The banking industry got into the situation of colapse due to bad housing loans the federal goverment required them to make in the 1st place. As I said, does any of this sound familiar?????

Here we are almost 240 years later. It looks to me like those in charge of the government have failed to learn from history.

The original Tea Party was basicly a peaceful protest. I will admit that it did destroy the property of others. But beyond that there was NO violence.

Today's Tea Party movement is modeled on the idea of peacefully protesting. Like those involved in the 1st Tea Party, those of us involved are fed up with the excessive spending & taxation by the Federal government. The movement is a call to return to the Constitutional principles our Country was founded on.

Bishop Loverde declared Monday a day of prayer & fasting to protect pro-life values in health care legislation. Interestingly enough, there is also a connection between that & the Boston Tea Party. The Virginia Colonial Legislature heard about the Boston Port Act that was the result of the Tea Party. Thomas Jefferson led the Virginia House of Burgesses on 24 May 1774 to proclaim a Day of Fasting & Prayer. “This House, being deeply impressed with apprehension…from the hostile invasion of the city of Boston in our Sister Colony of Massachusetts Bay, whose commerce and harbor are, on the first day of June next, to be stopped by an armed force, deem it highly necessary that the said first day of June be set apart, by the members of this House, as a Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer, devoutly to implore the Divine interposition, for averting the heavy calamity which threatens destruction to our civil rights.”

The King appointed Royal Governor, Lord Dunmore, was not amused by this Day of Fasting & Prayer resolution. So 2 days later he dissolved Virginia’s House of Burgesses. In response, Virginia’s colonial leaders gathered in Raleigh Taver. There they decided to form a Continental Congress, which two years later would vote for independence from the King.

Back then our elected leaders knew that prayer & fasting was key to changing things. Unforunately, I highly doubt any state legislature would have the courage to do so. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't still pray & fast. In fact, unless we do, we won't see the "heavy calamity" that will result from the path we are on averted either.

200 years ago, our Forefathers fought for life & liberty. Today between excessive taxes, legalized abortion, the threat of ObamaCare, etc, life & liberty is once again under attack. We are on the brink. Which way will we go? Will we pray & seek the face of God as they did, thus returning to our roots. Those roots that were founded in natural law & the endowment of certain rights by our Creator. Or will we refuse to seek God & end up like ancient Israel when it refused to obey God?

The choice is ours. I know I am praying. I admit I fall short at times & pray for God's forgiveness. But I am trying to obey God's call. Please join in before it is to late. We can stem the tide of abortion through prayer & fasting. jesus told us certain evil spirits can only be removed that way. We can return our Country to it's 1st principles (which line up with authentic Catholic social teaching). I honestly think it is not too late yet. But for how much longer????

As an aside, did you note who led the call for the day of prayer & fasting in Virginia. Yup, Thomas Jefferson who is oft used to justify the removal of involvement of religion in the public sector. Jefferson who regularly attended Church services as president because he felt it was his duty as president to set an example. America's founders knew we needed God. Today we are rejecting God & His laws as I said. I repeat 1 last time the call to pray for us to get back to our roots.