In 1863, Lincoln spoke to all Americans, appealing to them to recognize the true cause of the national calamity that we now face, saying:

"Nations like individuals are subjected to punishment and chastisement in this world. The awful calamity of the civil war [that Americans are involved in in Iraq] may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people.

"We have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gratious hand that preserved us in peace, and multiplied, enriched and strengthed us."

As we shifted from a God-centered republic, to a man-centered democracy we began to flounder.

As we shifted from the God-impelled 88th edition of the Church Manual, to the man-centered 89th edition fostered upon us by the Directors of the illegitimate Mother Church, we began to flounder.