“SACRED TRUST,” BY JODY HICE Reviewed by Stephen L. D’Andrilli

“Sacred Trust” is a good book, written by a good man, on an urgent matter affecting our Nation: “Election Integrity and the Will of the People” (the book’s subtitle).*

The author is a family man, humble and respectable, honorable and incorruptible. A devoted and loving husband and caring father, he is uncompromising in his Christian faith and unwavering in his ethical and moral convictions.

The author earned a bachelor’s degree from Asbury College, a Master’s of Divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a Doctor of Ministry from Luther Rice Seminary. He then served as a Pastor in Texas and Georgia, for almost 25 years.”

As a United States Congressman, Jody Hice represented Georgia’s 10th Congressional District for 8 years.

Hice was the host of radio’s “The Jody Hice Show” for over a decade and is now a frequent media commentator.

He presently serves as Senior Vice President of the Family Research Council and is President of “FRC Action,” the Council’s Legislative Affiliate.

Hice is an American Patriot in the truest sense of the word who loves his Country deeply and wishes to preserve and protect it in the form the Nation’s First Patriots gave to us. His book, “Sacred Trust,” reflects that fervent hope and desire.

The subject he writes about is of utmost concern and compelling importance to all Americans who love their Country, and who, like the author, recognize it is in grave danger of faltering and want to return it to its former greatness.

The upcoming 2024 U.S. Presidential Election, only a few months away, will determine the direction of our Nation.

The stakes could not be higher. We will either have a Country in the form the Founders gave us—a “Return” to a truly free Constitutional Republic—or we will continue on our present trajectory to a full-blown totalitarian dictatorship. This is our Nation’s “Final Battle.”

Hice points to the “threats against our culture and traditional way of life.”

He makes abundantly clear that “those elements that have historically set America apart from every other country in the world now seem to be hanging by a thread.”

It isn’t overstatement when he says, “Our beloved country is in a state of emergency!”

But how and why did we come to this condition? Did this emergency just happen or did it happen because destructive forces at work in our Country made it happen?

Hice makes clear this is no accident. He says,

The challenges we face are not caused by fate or the Bard’s ‘outrageous fortune.’ Every issue we face is the outcome of decisions, and these choices are being made by leaders. Just as decisions have consequences, leadership also has consequences.  And it is from this perspective that our current national ‘emergency’ has a degree of hope. Those leaders who have made poor decisions can and should be replaced with better stewards for America’s future. Our system of governance allows the people to elect new public servants who can reverse or alter old decisions and correct the outcome of harmful consequences. But this can only happen once a gut-check of reality and action is interjected.

Hice continues,

. . . [T]he ballot is the single most powerful tool Americans wield to hold their representatives accountable to policies that align with the majority, and policies that defend unalienable and constitutional rights that protect us all. If elected leaders fail to adequately represent their constituents, they should face the inevitable wrath of voters at the next election. They can and should be removed. It’s a beautiful and effective system we possess!

But how can Americans be assured the people they want in high Government office are the people they elected to high office?

Sure, Americans can vote out “leaders who have made poor decisions,” says Hice, but that can only happen if we have fair elections. The author knows this and it worries him that our elections may not be fair.

He says,

. . . [W]hat if our ability to replace inferior leaders is taken away? What if the voice of the people is denigrated and another person or group determines leaders for us. Just imagine, what if we had no voice at all. What if the constitutional right to be a self-determined society that chooses our own leaders, laws, and structure was strictly forbidden. What if our votes didn’t even matter and elections were effectively rigged? Worse yet, what if I told you that dystopian reality may be closer than you think?

This is distressing. Our votes must matter. But how do we make sure our votes will count?

Realizing a divided Congress is not doing its part, the Republican National Committee has taken up the slack.

Because of the crucial importance of this 2024 U.S. Presidential Election, the Republican National Committee (RNC) was compelled, for the first time, to establish a special “Election Integrity Program” to get the vote out and to ensure against voter fraud.

Hice would agree with the need for this. Preserving our Nation’s Free Constitutional Republic for ourselves, for our children, and those generations of Americans yet to come is the ultimate aim.

The author holds out hope, saying,

This book is not a prognosticator of doom; it is a Klaxon of hope and defiance. Our great nation is not beyond hope. Our challenges may be more complicated than those endured by past generations, but they can be solved.

Maintaining Election Integrity is the mechanism to accomplish that aim, and it is an ongoing process, not a one-off concern. As he says,

“America and the principles that make her great, are ultimately what this book is about.” But “the intent of this book is a treatise on integrity.”

It took a revolution in 1776 to create a Nation grounded on those principles.

But Americans have had to remain vigilant ever since to keep their Country and its sacred principles secure from the many threats that continuously sought the destruction of both. This requires strength of will and “integrity” of spirit.

Hice points to “threats against our culture and traditional way of life. . . . People are looking for answers; they are looking for hope. America is too great and too remarkable to finish this way. The world desperately needs a strong and healthy United States, and as individual citizens, we deeply desire to pass the priceless treasure of freedom to our children and grandchildren.”

We Americans, alive today, find ourselves at a crossroads, a once-in-a-lifetime juncture.

There is measured hope for the future juxtaposed against the real possibility of irreparable harm.

This tug between hope of redemption for our Nation and fear of irrevocable loss plays out in Hice’s accounts of events in his life as he relates in each Chapter.

Hice warns Americans “. . . that [a] dystopian reality may be closer than we think.”

What accounts for this dire forecast?

It is this: The dogma and cult of Secularism, promoted by the present Administration, infecting every institution of America.

Secularism is insinuating itself into the psyche of many Americans. Ruthless, evil people wielding vast power are responsible for this.

There is a deliberate, concerted effort afoot to transform our Nation into a thing unrecognizable and awful—a thing anathema to America and repugnant to our Nation’s Founders.

Our Nation was founded on and continues to thrive precisely because of our Christian values and principles, not despite them. This confounds and enrages the Secularists. They denounce Christianity and every aspect of it, and they do so vehemently. Their attacks become more and more flagrant and outrageous.

They no longer attempt to disguise their efforts, to couch their efforts in deceptive phrasing and nuance. They are now completely open about their aims and agenda.

Secularism has emerged in recent years as America’s New Religion and it has grown in influence given the power and money behind it. It has become a prominent cult in America, backed by a renegade Government, a sympathetic Press and social media, and an army of “influencers” forcing itself on the Country.

We see the bizarre, abhorrent effects of Secularism in Government, in our public education system; in our colleges and universities; in the Press, and cable and broadcast news organizations. We see the negative impact of Secularism in social media, and in sports and entertainment, and even in financial institutions.

Nothing remains sacred, revered, untouched. Everything is profaned by this plague of Secularism.

The dire effects of this plague are everywhere. It cannot be ignored. It is self-evident.

America has become a very different nation today than it was only a few years ago.

We have become a dangerously divided Country plagued by American’s fear and hatred toward one another over differences of opinions and ideologies.

The proponents of Secularism provoke and nurture this. They invite societal chaos in an orchestrated effort to confuse and demoralize people and to tear the Nation apart.

The issues of open borders, unvetted immigrants, random and rampant violent crime, and illegal drugs flooding our Country from outside, killing our children, consume us daily.

There is understandable mistrust of those presently in Government who are leading us. Government leaders and bureaucrats insist that our system of justice is fair and that all are equal under the law and that our Nation follows the “Rule of Law.”

But it is obvious Americans live under a two-tier system of justice. The Government’s lies are so blatant that Americans wonder whether the Government expects them to believe the lies told, or if the Government, so contemptuous of average Americans, simply doesn’t care whether they believe the deceit and deception or not.

Americans are experiencing the pain of spiraling, uncontrolled inflation because of the Government’s exorbitant, careless spending of hard-earned taxpayer money; trillions of dollars in national debt, and cost of living increases, are destroying the middle class and driving many Americans into penury.

The Government denies this too even as the Nation suffers under the weight of runaway inflation and the Government blithely continues to churn out worthless paper currency.

Unbridled Government corruption; misuse of its power and authority, heedless intrusion into the rights and liberties of the American people; justifiable concerns over quality education, health care, jobs, and the economy; massive energy inefficiencies; growing threats of terrorism at home; new wars and violent upheaval around the world; military unpreparedness; the breakdown of the family as a cohesive unit; blatant, incessant attacks on Christianity; the propounding and dissemination of alien dogmas on Americans, such as wokeness, identity politics, disparate impact thinking, and transgenderism; and the use of tools like censorship, cancel culture, shadow banning, and doxing to hurt people and to crush dissent; and a host of other matters and issues pervade and continue to trouble us.

All this, and a host of other serious matters, issues, and concerns pervade and continue to trouble us deeply.

The Country is falling apart at the seams. And it is all by design. But the Government and the Secularists deflect responsibility, directing it consciously and unconscionably on the most innocent of institutions, the Christian Church.

These would-be Secularist destroyers, of everything we cherish and hold dear, systematically and unceasingly attack Christianity, the Judeo-Christian ethic, and believers’ faith in God.

They do this because they despise and reject out-of-hand the idea of “Moral Truth” as a thing “Absolute and Eternal.” For them, there are no fundamental “Moral Truths.” They reject the concept of ‘Moral Truth’ out of hand.

The Secularists perceive Morality as Relative: “Conditional, Temporal and Impermanent,” relevant only to particular people at a particular time and a particular place, and subject to revision at the Government’s whim at the drop of a hat.

Proponents of Secularism are inherently suspicious of and jealous of the idea of power and authority higher than that of the State and seek to crush anyone they perceive as an enemy.

A tyrannical Government allows Secularists to do this callously, caustically, and injudiciously, and engages in this, itself.

Despite the despicable actions of these malevolent forces, they cannot dent the fact of “Moral Truth.” For it springs from and resides solely in God, not in the State.

Further, Natural Law Rights, codified in our Nation’s Bill of Rights, are bestowed on and in man by the Divine Creator, and rest far beyond the lawful power of the State (Government) to abrogate, denigrate, eradicate, alter, or ignore.

The Tyrannical Executive Branch of the Federal Government presently in control of the Country, along with its army of Secularists, persist in their efforts to destroy America’s indomitable spirit.

These constant, withering attacks on the Country and the psyche of Americans do have a deleterious effect that is undeniable. But there is notable aggressive pushback.

The results of the 2024 Presidential Election, if fairly conducted, will tell the world that Americans have rejected Secularism and the things the Cult of Secularism is inextricably tied to: Tyranny and Despotism.

Instead of relenting during this Election cycle, they are doubling down on their efforts to impose their will on the Country and the American people. They can’t help but do this. They are vacuous shells, empty husks because they have rejected the Divine Creator. And these foul beings would dare to instill their depravity on all Americans and the rest of the world as well.

Those who seek to annihilate a Free Republic, and to erect a despotic Government in its stead, insist on dictating law and morality to the public as they wish. They see both law and morality as ad hoc things useful as agents of control. They are doubling down on their efforts to impose their will on the Country and the American people.

Secularists are incapable of recognizing a spiritual, timeless dimension to life and consciousness. They only perceive the physical and transitory.

Hice finds this deeply troubling, and is urged to say, “. . . although it is not the focus of this book, America is facing a spiritual problem.”

Yet, “Sacred Trust” is not and isn’t meant to be a religious tract.

Still, the notion of integrity, as a virtue, is the central theme of the book and that concept is not distinct from but is integral to God as the embodiment of Moral Perfection. This is tied to spirituality—things beyond the physical.

Integrity is mentioned in every chapter, and the matters discussed encapsulate a lesson that Americans should ponder.

Any serious discussion of integrity necessarily embraces spirituality. Embracing “Integrity” is the ammunition to be employed against the forces of Secularism.

How do Americans successfully wage war against the unholy forces of Secularism? They must infuse themselves with the virtue of “Integrity.” If Americans embrace integrity, they will demand the same of Government servants and all their institutions, including the Electoral System.

Embracing “Integrity” is the ammunition to be employed against the forces of Secularism.

Integrity, as a virtue, is inextricably linked to the subject of morality and the concept of “Good” and “Evil.”

God imbues man with the gift of Morality, with the knowledge of Good and Evil, as opposites.

As a being of Free Will, Man knows the difference between right and wrong, and between good and evil. He may choose either.

If he strives to be virtuous, to be seen by other men as a person who is true to his word—as a man of integrity—he would hope that other men and the leaders of the Nation would do the same.

If so, our Nation will remain true to the precepts upon which it is grounded, the U.S. Constitution. If not, the Nation will fall and disintegrate, and it is beginning to disintegrate from within.

Is this to suggest that our Nation must or ought to be perceived as a theocracy to survive as a Free Republic? No.

Hice says this:

The United States is not a theocracy, but it is a nation whose principles and philosophy are rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition. America’s founding seems to clearly reveal that biblical principles are intended to inform, without dictating the laws of this land. Leftists balk when you bring up such assertions. They maintain that secular morality is superior and that any Christian influence on laws should be barred under the principles of separating church and state. I’m not arguing for a biblical state, but a nation must have a set of morals. It must have shared ideas and common ideology of freedom, liberty and individualism. Without that foundation of integrity and unified moral underpinning, the American system of government, impressive though it may be, is ultimately no more than a city built on sand.”

What Hice discusses here is crucially important. It involves a legal as well as a moral issue that catapulted him from the pulpit to Congress. And it is an issue continuing to play out today.

The issue involves the “Ten Commandments.” Hice relates this experience at length for the reader in his book. And it is cited at length below.

Following a few moves to different churches, I eventually became the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Bethlehem, Georgia. . . . The church started to grow rapidly. . . . Amid the growth, we attracted a wide range of people, including several involved in local politics, including county commissioners. Upon discussion and approval by the congregation, our church decided to purchase a large copy of the Ten Commandments and donate it to the county for display in the courthouse. In accordance with county commission policy, they held public meetings and debates about the gift, and following all the procedural requirements, they voted to approve the display.

Everything was fine until one day in June 2003 . . . [one of the county commissioners] . . . with deep concern in his voice . . . informed me that the ACLU had filed a lawsuit against Barrow County to remove the Ten Commandments from the courthouse as a matter of ‘separation of church and state.’ . . . it would cost a fortune to defend the case and the county did not have the financial ability to protect itself.

. . . I was not blind to the greater principles at stake. The First Amendment guaranteed our right to display the Ten Commandments, and we would not be told otherwise. No matter the legal fees or lawyer tricks of the ACLU, we would defend our rights.

. . . The legal battle lasted approximately three years and cost about $300,000. I kept my promise, and the Barrow County taxpayers didn’t have to pay for the lawsuit. In the end, we lost the case, and the Ten Commandments were ordered out of the courthouse. Seeing the Word of God expelled from the house from whose laws it was derived was a sad and dark day. How could this be? The Ten Commandments are present in multiple places in our nation’s capital. They are the foundation from which our laws emerge. . . every dollar America mints clearly states, ‘In God We Trust.’

Nonetheless, the Decalogue was removed from the courthouse and we had to determine our next move. . . . Then on May 7, 2012, after six years of dedicated involvement that resulted in an equal share of reassuring and disappointing days, our toils finally bore fruit. . . . I was invited by Governor Nathan Deal to join him and others in a signing ceremony of a new law (HB766) that declared a nine-document historical exhibit, which includes the Ten Commandments, as legal to display in any government building in the state of Georgia. . . . The bill served as ‘a stake in the ground’ for other counties to follow.”

Jump forward to 2024, twenty-one years after the ACLU filed suit against the placing of the Ten Commandments in Pastor Hice’s Church. The ACLU has stated its intention to file a lawsuit against Louisiana for passing a law mandating the Ten Commandments be placed in every public school in the State.

Once again, the ACLU will proclaim that the State Law violates the “Separation of Church and State” Clause of the First Amendment. See, e.g., the article on the local Louisiana news station WCNT.

This case will receive National attention and is likely to eventually wend its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

It is singularly odd and disturbing that the ACLU becomes unhinged with the display of the Ten Commandments in Churches and in public schools, but sees nothing amiss in the placing of “Pride” Flags and “Black Lives Matter” signs in public classrooms.

Why is it and how is it that symbols of this new Secular Religion that most Americans find repugnant and appalling are proclaimed to fall within the purview of the First Amendment’s “Freedom of Speech” Clause and must be thrust on all of us to suffer firsthand?

Yet, at the same time, we are told the “Word of God” is found, oddly, undeserving of protection under that same First Amendment of the United States which Americans venerate and cherish: The right to “Freedom of Speech?”

Why should the profane and perverse be deserving of protection under our Constitution but the sacrosanct and inviolate not be deserving of that same protection? Such an idea is not only logically unsound, it’s absurd.

Are we Americans expected to abide by Secularism’s embrace of symbols that offend Christian values dating back millennia to the time of Christ, and that are reflected in our Nation’s heritage and our core values going back over two centuries to the dawn of our Republic? If so, why is that?

Who are these Secularists in the ACLU, in Government, and in saccharine sweet, sanctimonious “Blue States” to dictate morality to the entire Country?

Such are the depths of insanity the Secularists would dare to plummet our Country. And such is the arrogance they exhibit and the disdain they have for the majority of Americans.

How long must our citizenry tolerate their endless insolence, invective, and grandiosity?

Are we to allow our sacred symbols and emblems that have defined Americans as Christians and that have defined America as a Christian Nation since its founding, enshrined in our history, heritage, and culture, to be side-lined and eventually erased, ostensibly in adoration to an obscenity—the deity of crass and coarse Secularism?

Are Americans expected to endorse irreverent and bizarre Neo-Marxist emblems that brazenly embrace a “Neo-Black” racism directed against “Whites?” And are we to accede to flags and other emblems that extoll, as virtues, unnatural, sinful conduct?

Is the flaunting of these coarse, vulgar, depraved symbols and emblems to go unchallenged without a whimper of disapproval, let alone outright condemnation as things both alien and antithetical to our Nation’s core ethical values and principles?

Are Americans expected to remain silent as the Secularists usher in a new socio-political era for America, promulgated on the ideology of Neo-Marxist Collectivism and the Anti-ethical system of Moral Relativism?

Are we to suffer the injudicious plastering—hither and yon throughout the Land—of the symbols of alien ideologies and perverse belief systems, antithetical to Christianity and to the tenets, precepts, and principles of Individualism that are the foundation of our Free Constitutional Republic and of our Fundamental, Unalienable, Eternal Rights and Liberties?

Americans must take a stand against the dangerous nonsense the Secularists proselytize. They will have a chance to do so at the Ballot Box this November.

The irrationality of a Secularist organization like the ACLU is apparent in the way they use the First Amendment as a cudgel against Christians. The ACLU treats the “Freedom of Speech” Clause of the First Amendment as antagonistic to the “Separation of Church and State” Clause. They are not. “Freedom of Speech” and “Separation of Church and State” are not mutually antagonistic. They cohere.

An American’s display of the Ten Commandments in our Nation is protected speech.

To suggest that spiritual symbols, emblems, and artifacts must be construed within the confines of “Separation of Church and State” involves a severely constricted, distorted, and constrained view of the parameters of the Fundamental Right to “Freedom of Speech,” which are, contrary to the ACLU’s strained interpretation, extraordinarily broad.

If not, then, shall we not infer by logical implication that symbols and emblems and paraphernalia of Secularism and Satanism are to be construed as “Religious” things (Anti-Religious, rather than Non-Religious) as well, and therefore must also be subject to “Separation of Church and State” legal analysis? How does the ACLU respond to that?

I would hazard a guess that many more Americans would (and do) abhor the installation of idols reflecting demon worship, loathe Flags and Signs extolling a Racist-Marxist group such as BLM or Flags of the nations of our enemies, and detest “Gay” and “Transgender” “Pride Flags much more so than they would object, if at all, to public display of overt Christian symbols or a Judeo-Christian symbol such as the “Ten Commandments.”

Hice is forthright when he says, “We live in the greatest country in the world.”

But will it remain so in the face of the powerful, ruthless forces marshaled against us that intend to destroy us?

Hice continues,

These United States of America are worth fighting for, and unless people take a stand, right now, there is so much that will be lost. And once gone, it will never be restored. America, and the principles that make her great, are ultimately what this book is about. We cannot sit idly by while the foundations of the country are being tampered with and gradually destroyed. But, for our efforts to succeed there must be election security, and election security’s most fundamental component is integrity. 

Hice is correct.

He says emphatically, “Without integrity, elections cannot be secure. Without integrity, neither the government nor any other sector of our society can long avoid corruption and abusive behavior. Indeed, integrity is essential for any civil society.”

Jody Hice sees all of this and wishes to do something about it.

His book serves as an incisive weapon of truth against the flurry of lies, and deceitful actions by those in Government and outside it who hate our Nation, wish to tear it apart, and bring it down.

A Country that has no firm moral footing in God, is doomed eventually and inevitably to annihilation from within, as the people of that Country will take on themselves the inherent moral flaws of that Country as they become indoctrinated in the falsehoods and propaganda perpetrated on them by the Government and by groups with personal agendas antagonistic to the well-being of our Country, its Christian principles, and its people.

This is occurring more and more rapidly in our Country.

The author’s message is clear, categorical, and unequivocal. A truly moral man will seek to act by that morality, and will stay true to the virtue of “Integrity.”

And, if men are imbued with integrity, then their institutions will reflect that virtue as well, and the Country will be Fair and Just and both Country and people will prosper.

But, if men are not imbued with integrity, that will be reflected in their institutions, and that bodes ill for the Nation and its people. Nation and people will suffer horribly. America will effectively cease to exist. The forces of darkness will have triumphed.

Integrity must therefore pervade every institution of the Country and must be fixed in every American’s being if the Nation is to prevail against the forces of darkness that, at present, have the upper hand.

If more of the Electorate embraces Integrity, then they will see through the evil of the present Biden Administration, will not be duped into voting for Biden for President in 2024, but will reject him out of hand. They will vote for Trump. But will Americans’ vote for Trump be enough? It will but only if the Presidential Election is fair.

What can the American people do?

First, they must inculcate integrity. That will protect them against the deceptions, distortions, and outright lies perpetrated by a seditious Press and social media, and will maximize voter turnout for Trump, overwhelming the small group of cultists and uninformed.

Second, they must insist on the integrity of their elections.

The present evil leaders of our Country intend to stay in power.

They will try to manipulate the 2024 Presidential election to ensure they remain in power. No one reflecting on this would seriously doubt it. Manipulation of the ballots must be stopped in its tracks.

Hice says the American people must take an active part to prevent this. They must insist the Election is conducted fairly.

The author ends his book with this plea:

“So the calling is clear, and the responsibility is undeniable. We cannot simply talk about election security; we must be involved to ensure that it is protected at all costs. I plead with you, jump into the arena!”

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*This Book Review serves as a preface to a comprehensive analysis of “Sacred Trust” the Arbalest Quarrel is working on. It is a remarkable book and requires thorough treatment. We are doing that and will post our analysis on completion as a separate article on our website.