FIRST POSTED: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2015 11:51 AM MST | UPDATED: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2015 12:47 PM MST Edmonton Sun, Tom Bateman, Postmedia Network

“GRANDE PRAIRIE, ALTA. -- Everyone knew it was bad.

But numbers presented by the RCMP Thursday confirm that Grande Prairie led all of Canada in both Crime and Violent Crime Severity Indexes in 2014.”

I tend not to get too political and “preachy” in my blogs but this is sitting in my gut and will not leave and that is when I know it is time to let the voice out.

As we watch our country suffer nationally, our province totally turning the oil fields upside down and now our city becomes the most dangerous place in Canada – somewhere inside you have to ask the question – “what happened?”

We were one of the most prosperous regions in the country. I spoke with someone yesterday who works at a dentist office, 3 guys had come in that day and needed work done immediately because they had just been laid off. My son went to the Doctor last week on the day he got laid off and was told he was number 15 that day who had come in and been laid off. Re-possession folks are hanging around the Grande Prairie airport as guys are leaving their leased or highly loaned vehicles at the airport while they walk away and fly back east and head home, they cannot pay for them.

As an on looker it can be so clear what is happening as you observe the mess but to others they can not see the forest for the trees and they sit in puzzlement as to what’s happening and wonder what do we do next?

It was bound to come. Our Country still sings it at the opening of government meetings, conferences, school functions, even our national hockey games – “O Canada ….. God keep our land….” In the Canadian Constitution – the very bedrock on which our country was founded it says “Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law:” It’s part of our Charter Freedoms giving us freedom of religion, expression of it, and association with it.

We used to have All persons in a court of law swear on a Bible to tell the truth.

We used to teach the Lords Prayer in schools. We used to say Merry Christmas!

People from other nations wanted to come to our country because our country was working – they were outside and they Liked what they saw we had, a safe and proud country. But we changed – because being totally Canadian means we don’t want anyone else to be uncomfortable and we probably said “sorry” when we did it.

If we built our country on Godly principles and then later decide that God really should be taken back out of our country – there will come a time when God literally says – “think you can do it without me? Go ahead.” And He will take His hands off, stand back and watch us try to do it ourselves.

Each time we took God out of our government, our schools, our meeting places and our homes, we lost the covering of the God of our Country and now we have a country where crime is up, jobs are hard to come by, single moms are the norm of raising children, people are scared for of the future in Canada and now we do not even know if we are male or female anymore. (Look up Bill C-279). PLEASE!!

What can we do? Well I for one will continue to stand on bedrock – the solid foundation that Canada was founded on – the God of The Bible. I will trust Him to take care of me because that is His promise and I have found His promises to be unlike those of the government – His last and come true. I will continually pray for our country’s leaders that they would seek God and His counsel in how to lead our country. I will say when I think the government is out of line and teach my children right from wrong and teach them about the God who helped found our country because personally I would much rather live with Him than without.

Spoiler Alert – we can try to take God out of the country but if you know anything about the Bible – I peeked at the end of the story – God Wins!

#government #stress #fear #constitution #religion #God #Crime #Oilcrisis #suffering #nowork