The media clamors about men being deprived of it. Politicians promise to make it accessible. Other institutions claim to make it possible.

And when we ask what this dream is, what is it, more than anything else, which defines our history and the quest of our forefathers who came to these shores — why, of course, it is home ownership! Such is the imbecility with which we are barraged every day. It would do us well, then, to reconsider the motives of our forefathers and the quest they made politically, which was to them both the dream and opportunity of a "new world."

Christopher Columbus, credited with discovery of the new world, described his motives in writing to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, in a letter contained in the journal of his first voyage:

"... (B)ecause of the information which I had given your Highnesses about the lands of India, and about a prince who is called Great Kahn ... how he and his predecessors had many times sent to Rome to beg for men learned in our Holy Faith that they might be instructed therein...

"(Y)our Highnesses, as Catholic Christians and Princes, loving the Holy Christian faith and the spreading of it, and enemies of the sect of Mohamet and of all idolatries and heresies, decided to send me, Christopher Columbus, to the said regions of India, to see the said Princes and the peoples and lands and learn of ... the measures which could be taken for their conversion to our Holy Faith.

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The first permanent settlement in North America was Jamestown in 1607. James I of England granted the First Charter of Virginia in 1606, declaring the purposes for that Colony:

"We, greatly commending, and graciously accepting of, their desires for the furtherance of so noble a work, which may, by the providence of Almighty God, hereafter tend to the glory of His divine majesty,

"(I)n propagating of Christian Religion to such people, as yet live in miserable ignorance of the true knowledge and worship of God, and may in time bring the infidels and savages, living in those parts, to human civility, and to a settled and quiet government:

"Do by these our letters patents, graciously accept of, and agree to, their humble and well-intended desires;....”

The next English settlement was Plymouth Plantation in 1620. The

"Pilgrim Colony" is famous for their journey, as well as the Mayflower Compact they authored. When the compact is recited, the motive is usually excised:

"In the name of God, amen. We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign lord King James, by the grace of God of Great Britain, France and Ireland, king, defender of the faith, etc., having undertaken, for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith and honor of our king and country, a voyage....”

Last of the "parent colonies" was founded by William Penn. His 1682 Frame of Government describes the purpose of civil government as established by God:

"When the great and wise God had made the world ... it pleased Him to choose man his deputy to rule it; and to fit him ... He did not only qualify him with skill and power, but with integrity to use them justly.

"This native goodness was equally his honor and happiness; and whilst he stood here, all went well; there was no need of coercive or compulsive means....

"But lust prevailing against duty, made a lamentable breach ... and the law that before had no power over him, took place upon him, and his disobedient posterity, that such as would not live conformable to the holy law within, should fall under the reproof and correction of the just law without, in a judicial administration....

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Penn goes on quoting Scripture as the source of his ideas, concluding: "This settles the divine right of government beyond exception, and that for two ends: first, to terrify evil-doers: secondly to cherish those that do well.... So that government seems to me a part of religion itself, a thing sacred in its institution and end."

While more early literature could be cited, enough is here to set the record straight on the American Dream. Our forefathers were Christians who sought to evangelize the world.

They sought establishment of civil institutions obedient to God. They found the source of authority for human governments in the Word of God, and believed obedience to that Word was a means — and the only means — of establishing true liberty.

This is a liberty based upon what Christianity teaches: first, an internal work of Christ the Savior on man's heart. Flowing from that, the establishment of free institutions, made possible by His blessing.

The idea that we can be free, without faith and obedience is a dangerous fable. And the patronizing claim that a few trinkets like homes, cars or cell phones define liberty is a complete sham.

America cannot be reformed without turning back to the God of our fathers. And the road to this reformation includes personal repentance and faith.

From that standpoint, we must reclaim a Christian approach to civil government, beginning with what the Bible teaches about it.