The balloons are gone. The banners stored away. The acrimonious debates and the daily fare of bitter attacks ended. The 2012 election is behind us. The most expensive election in U.S. history, with spending estimated at $ 5.6 billion, has given another four years to the President.

With his newly won mandate for hope and change, President Obama now returns from a two-year campaign to the oval office and to the hard task of leading the nation. Some are happy. Others disappointed. The nation remains deeply divided, both on issues and, more profoundly, on principles.

Ever since the 1960s, there has been an ever-increasing inequality between those who have more than enough and those who do not even have a job. The unemployment rate remains at 7.9 percent while the number of unemployed persons has climbed to a frightening 12.3 percent. In fact, almost 7 million Americans have simply abandoned their search for a job.

Our national debt is $16,213,982,129,207.31. Staggering! At the present, every man, woman or child in the United States owes $53,366 for his or her share of this debt. Costs must be cut. Government revenues must increase. Taxes will undoubtedly go up.
Furthermore, as baby boomers prepare to retire, bankruptcy lurks on the horizon. Fewer and fewer workers will have to foot the bills for an ever-increasing class of retirees. Is not one of the many evil consequences of abortion and widespread contraception the reduction in the nation’s most valuable asset: people who contribute to the good of society?

The President’s desire to help those without jobs by extending unemployment benefits only highlights the problem. The situation remains essentially unchanged. Entitlement to benefits is a fix in a crisis situation. A more permanent solution is needed.

Our leaders need to work together to create jobs so that every eligible person can make his or her own living. If this does not happen, the country will continue its economic decline. Entitlements should assist citizens, young and old. They should not make the false promise that no sacrifice is required. Such is an intoxicating illusion and ultimately diminishes the individual’s self-worth and, in the long run, works against the common good.

The polemic of the recent campaign has done very little to shore up the decaying foundation of American society. America is strong only when her families are strong. But today, we witness the breakdown in family life. In 1960, 5 percent of American children were born to unmarried women. Today, with that number at more than 40 percent, unmarried motherhood is far too common.

It has become politically incorrect to say that the best environment to raise a child is a family of a mother and father joined in a stable marriage. To hold otherwise may have won votes, but it does not bolster authentic family life. The present administration in its professed tolerance for alternate lifestyles has basically contributed to the undermining of traditional family life.

In the United States today, the most urgent and most widespread civil rights struggle is not for gay marriage nor is it for the mistaken fight to have others pay for contraception under the guise of preventive health care for women. Rather, our most pressing civil rights issue is comprehensive immigration reform. Across partisan lines, there is the need to effectively bring about legal immigration channels that allow immigrants eager to work to go through our system, find a ready welcome and keep their families intact. We cannot continue the record pace of deportations that occurred in our president’s first term. Promises can no longer be empty words. Only hard work on both sides of the aisle will remedy the situation.

Before the president’s re-election, 100 plaintiffs filed 40 lawsuits against the administration’s conscience-crushing mandate to provide insurance coverage for contraception, sterilization and abortion-causing drugs. Catholic institutions such as the University of Notre Dame were among them. Baptist schools such as Louisiana College, Houston Baptist University and East Texas Baptist University have filed lawsuits against the mandate as well. Even businesses such as Hobby Lobby have joined in protesting the curtailment of religious liberty in terms of health care.

Ignoring pleas from people across the spectrum of faith in the U.S., the Obama administration has given little hope of recognizing the freedom of religion other than within the walls of a church, mosque or synagogue. The present administration so defines religious exemption in Obamacare that neither Mother Teresa nor Jesus himself would qualify to serve the sick and the poor. The penalties for not complying with the mandate will deal a death blow to work of religious groups caring for the needy.

Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Alan Sears has predicted that “The Obama Administration will continue trampling on …faith and liberty by funneling hundreds of millions more taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood. …..and forcing Christian employers to either abandon their faith or pay staggering fines that will likely put them out of business, and appointing more and more liberal, activist judges.” With people of good will committed to sound moral principles and with much prayer, this prophecy need not come to pass.

The challenges that we faced before the election remain. We need to pray for our leaders, especially our re-elected president. Only when our leaders cherish and protect our religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage, the family, our right to work and our great tradition of welcoming immigrants will America not forfeit its greatness.

Mr. President, our prayers are with you!