U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis told a gathering at Mid-Atlantic Christian University that while he believes the nation has gone “a bit off course,” the situation can be fixed.
Tillis, 56, a first-term Republican senator, was in the Harbor of Hospitality on Friday spending the day touring Coast Guard Base Elizabeth City and later that evening at a MACU annual fundraising gala attended by approximately 80 people.
Tillis said he believes that a nation founded on faith is beginning to erode and that, while America always needs to be tolerant of other faiths, the nation can’t apologize for having Judeo-Christian roots.
“I think that MACU is a classic example of what we need more of and, unfortunately in our society, I think we have less of,” he said.
Tillis, who’s an avid boater, cited the presence of the lighthouses along the North Carolina coast and noted their having long ago been constructed as reference points to help ship captains navigate around potential obstacles.
“That’s what public policy is a lot like,” he said. “I’m not necessarily saying that we’re going to get directly to where I want to go, but I want to make sure that we’re tacking in that direction so that we do not get too far off course. And I think that this nation is a bit off course.”
Tillis made clear there needs to be a focus on taking care of all people in the nation, on being respectful to one another and on being respectful to those who want to come to America.
“But, we need to do it in a way that is responsible, a way that is sustainable and a way that never departs from the fundamental things that made this nation so great,” he said.
Tillis went on to say that, “We’re at a point in time where our national security and our homeland security is at risk.”
Noting his having passed the half-century mark in his life, he also recalled graduating from high school before the federal Department of Education was formed. He argued that, even with the presence of the cabinet-level agency, he believes the outcome has worsened in America.
“We live in a time when our education system is failing us,” he said.
Tillis also recalled having been 19 at the end of the 1970s, when he was living on his own in a trailer park and working at a warehouse. He spoke of remembering the Iranian hostage crisis and of President Jimmy Carter’s speech pleading for more sacrifice by Americans in the midst of apathy, a stagnant economy and an energy crisis. Carter’s remarks, although forthright in tone, were dubbed by critics as “the malaise speech.”
Tillis praised President Ronald Reagan because he believed Reagan had the vision to change the nation’s direction and return America to greatness, with the help of conservative Democrats. He noted he believed the change had a long-term effect on him, too, as he moved from a meager life to being a senator.
“So, I believe that we can turn things around,” he said. “I know that we will turn things around, but we have to get serious and recognize that things have to be turned around.”
Tillis was introduced by MACU Trustee R.E. Everette, who became emotional in tone when he said he is impressed with North Carolina’s junior senator being both a man of faith and a man who gives time to nurture his staff’s faith in Christ.
Everette said when people ask him what he thinks about Tillis, he replies, “He is honest. He is trustworthy. He is strong as battery acid.” Tillis prompted laughter when he poked fun at himself, including when he noted his being a “cradle Catholic” who in his youth moved many times within the South. He said he learned that, as the new youngster in a neighborhood, “You find either a Mormon or a Jehovah’s Witness to be your best friend.”
The reason, he said, is because if he ended up in a school yard with threatening Baptists, he could deflect attention from himself to a fellow schoolboy by stating, “Well, I may be Catholic, but he’s Jehovah’s Witness.”
MACU President Clay Perkins said after Friday evening’s event that Tillis was invited because he serves North Carolina and is a friend of MACU.
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