As of now I will only post once a week on this topic. If I can I will post more. My children (especially my 4yo son) are still trying to find their new place in our growing family. My priorities lay with them and their lessons. With a newborn to tend to I have precious little time for outside interests. Thanks for understanding. I am still commited to this study, I am simply consolidating my posts. Have a blessed weekend!
I am not going to list all the questions from T&L here because it is copyrighted material. I will list my answers and discuss ideas but I am not going to copy and paste all the lessons. That wouldn't be ethical (or legal!). It is up to you to go through these lessons yourself and answer the questions and do the reading.
What is a Leading Idea?
It is an idea that leads the reader down a certain line of thinking, toward a Biblical Principle. Leading ideas get you to think and not simply regurgitate facts. They help you to form your own thoughts on a topic.
Thoughts From the Leading Ideas
America is associated with the "principle of individuality" because we were founded upon Biblical principles, this being one. Without a Christian basis, the "principle of individuality" goes away. It is a distinctly Christian idea, so if the basis is removed the idea of the individual is replaced with a socialist one.
The socialist form of government is oppressive and over reaching as it demands conformity, redistribution and dependence upon the state in lieu of individual responsibility. This is what the founding fathers understood and worked to avoid. Their knowledge of God's Word and His plan for human government helped the founding fathers to form a government that would maximize the potential of the individual without exploiting him for the state's benefit.
To begin our study of America's Christian History we must discuss some basic ideas.
The Christian Idea of Man
The Christian idea of man is the basis for our form of government. It is also the foundational principle that the other 6 principles of America's Christian History and Government. It is the idea that man is created in God's image as a unique individual. All men are therefore created equal with independent value. This is a wonderful principle to meditate on. If we are unique, equal and have value, then the state is servant to us and not master.
The Purpose of Government
The state was created for man, not the other way around. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are rights from God and the responsibility to keep them is delegated to the state. Today this weighty task is not respected by federal government, but rather it is becoming more and more irrelevant. Our government (state and federal) is moving more toward a pagan idea of government.
The Pagan idea of Man
To the pagans (pagan meaning those who are not Christians) is that man has value as related to the state. The state has all the power to control, not protect, our liberty. We also have a society that looks to the state as keepers or even dispensers of liberty. It is a socialist idea that pervades our society today. Our citizens have not been educated on the Christian idea of man so we should not expect anything different.
I will go into more detail on the Leading Ideas (step 2) in the next post.
I am hosting a history study here on my blog beginning Monday, April 7. The resources you need are these two books here (click the pics to purchase), along with a Bible. I also recommend a notebook, lots of notebook paper, 8 dividers and a nice pen. Since we use the notebook method in BPA, you know we always need more notebooks!
I will post on the week's lesson and then (hopefully) you will leave comments regarding the lesson, or link to your blog's post on the topic. 
My hope is to generate positive, insightful conversation regarding America's Christian history as we learnfrom these lessons.
There are 8 lessons, so we will take one each week and discuss it here and at our weekly Thursday night chats. I will add a new topic to my category list to make these lessons easy to find in the future, which is helpful if you can't study with us right now. I hope you will prayerfully consider joining me for this exciting study.
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