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The controversy surrounding San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick refuses to die. During the National Anthem, the football player refuses to stand and pay homage to the country that has made him fabulously wealthy.

Now, a handful of other football players are also refusing to participate in the National Anthem.

It’s a free country, and people are free to express themselves. But it’s interesting to note that if it weren’t for the soldier, willing to lay down his life for his country, Kaepernick et al would not have that freedom to protest.

Kaepernick said he has great respect for such soldiers, but he adds, “People are dying in vain because this country isn’t holding their end of the bargain up.”

To me, this is a picture of humanity. We have been so blessed by God in so many different ways. But instead of paying homage to Him and showing the gratitude which is the very least He deserves, instead we show Him our fists and defiance.

If it weren’t for the grace of Jesus, by which the hearts of every one of us beat, we would not have the freedom to disbelieve and just live for ourselves. His claim to be our Creator was vindicated when He walked out of His tomb 2,000 years ago.

Every once in a while, on the Internet, I’ll click on those clickbait lists of alleged unbelievers.

When I have seen those lists, I can’t help but feel that I’m looking at the Honor Role of the Ungrateful.

Everything we have is a gift from God. The Apostle Paul asked the Corinthian Christians 2,000 years ago, “What do you have that you did not receive?” The answer is nothing.

As to the protests of Kaepernick and other well-paid football players, their stated concerns are the lack of “social justice” in America.

But what is it that is devastating the black community today? Fatherlessness. What has caused the breakdown of the family? Government redistribution of wealth via subsidies, by which liberals buy votes. They have created a permanent underclass of people by subsidizing fatherlessness and unemployment.

Prior to the Great Society, the rate of illegitimacy in the black community was relatively low. Today, the rate is about 75%, which is devastating.

I had the privilege to talk recently with Star Parker, an African-American columnist and author of Blind Conceit, for our new D. James Kennedy Ministries TV special on the problem of socialism.

Star told our viewers: “The problem with government overreach and replacing the church is that they’re replacing a real significant part of mankind, a need, a vacuum that we all have to reach and find God.”

Parker is the founder and president of C.U.R.E., the Center for Urban Renewal and Education, a policy institute in Washington, D.C. She knows first-hand what it’s like to live off the government dole and to pray in effect, “Our Father, which art in Washington.”

She added, “I look into my own life and my own testimony and how after believing the lies of the left for years, that my problems were somebody else’s fault, that America was racist---that poor people were poor because wealthy people were wealthy; and buying all of that worldview, I got really lost and ended up in aggressive living, criminal activity, drug activity, sexual activity, in and out of abortion clinic after clinic, in and out of welfare after welfare.”

What was it that changed her? She said, “It wasn’t until a Christian conversion I was able to change my life. You remove that opportunity for people, and they stay lost. And that’s one of the problems when government tries to replace God; people get lost, people don’t know what to do, so they look outside to see what everybody else is doing. When you look outside to see what others are doing, you see pop culture, you see secular humanism, you see moral relativism, this is not a good place for people that really want freedom and personal responsibility.”

Star notes that freedom and personal responsibility have been the engines for positive change in our nation from the beginning: “As a nation we’re built on freedom and personal responsibility. You can’t do that outside of heaven’s core principles and a rule of law, which are rooted in a worldview; and that biblical worldview is where we were founded and it’s where we should stay.”

I wish these millionaire football players, many of whom have come up from incredibly challenging backgrounds, would use their energy and their alleged passion for “social justice” to see real, positive, God-centered changes in the country. Then they would express gratitude to the Almighty for the incredible opportunities this nation can offer---opportunities they themselves have profited from.