"Righteousness exalts a nation,
but sin condemns any people."
Proverbs 14:34
I posted this song in a tweet today, and noted that listening to this actually HURTS, because my gut reaction is, "No thanks to a majority of American evangelicals." If our nation makes it and makes lasting changes, it will be despite a majority of evangelical Christians.
Wise people have pointed out that America is not the Chosen Land. That is very important, and must be noted here as a balance. There is this tendency in Anglo-American worship music and Bible teaching to co-opt promises made to Israelites in the Old Testament, and context is very important. We also have to acknowledge that America is not, in fact, exceptional. Those colonizing peoples mentioned like to use Scripture to justify almost anything, and it's not always intended as a way to do harm, but rather as a way to unite. But we just really need to take a long hard look at who it is uniting, and who gets pushed aside.
Having said all that, there is a Scriptural principal that good leaders lift a nation up and bad leadership disgraces a nation. This is arguably a reflection on a people in a democratic system where a people choose their leaders. However, corruption has always found a way to lord it over others, and in America, 2020, we do not have a president elected by the majority of American voters, and many voters don't even feel there's any point voting, because no one will genuinely represent their views. That is arguably not a healthy democracy at all.
I want to ask this question to conclude the questioning part of where we are as a result of the lies we've been fed, and I want to think a moment about this idea of a nation being turned back, or around, to/for righteousness. I think we can clearly see times in history, where, despite an ongoing battle between good and evil, evil that had appeared to have won, was wiped out by good. The fall of Nazi Germany, in my grandparents' lives, or the fall of the Berlin Wall in mine, come to mind. Periods of freedom and even prosperity often followed. But we don't take too much time to dwell on the transitions that led to goodness and even greatness. We may well be in one such, right now.
We often forget the suffering of many who never had the privilege of getting over the griefs they had endured. Stiff upper lip might have been a useful way to get through wartime, but it doesn't work so well when everything falls apart and you see where you really are. A time of mourning and repentance is wiser than pretending the Holocaust didn't happen. And however much you educate a group of people for democracy and freedom, there are always those who will retain disgraceful views. They just go underground and keep chipping away for a little bit of power and control.
Most importantly, a nation simply cannot "transition to greatness" if it continues to allow itself to be led by those who disgrace it by their sin.
I want here to share something written by a professor in a similar field to the professors I was privileged to have when I studied French and German with European Studies back in 1998-2002. For the original source, please read here.
To add a personal perspective, I've been harping on the danger to freedoms from a man of Trump's character, since 2015. Like we've seen, the response to (Muslim) refugees was a real eye-opener about how Americans were hardened, even and especially in the church stateside. There are other dangers to his type of leadership: his callousness means that those, who are mourning loved ones right now, are being kicked while they are down by his supporters, who refuse to wear masks to protect others. His kind of leadership ultimately always impacts the innocent. To bring that closer to home, I recovered from COVID19 over three weeks, and the thing that made it hardest was dealing with the uncertainty he personally put my profession through for our school resumption in August.
You see, this kind of leadership is dangerous because you can't just switch it off or ignore it, unless you are exceedingly privileged. It will come for you, for your freedoms, and it will not simply allow, let alone support, you getting on with your life on your own terms. It is anti-freedom.
If you protest this kind of leadership, you are a target for disproportionate revenge. But you are not safe just because you keep your head down. This kind of leadership wants your absolute allegiance, and it will not tolerate nor support you if you have needs that conflict with the leader's.
This has been my experience of spiritually oppressive environments, and this is my experience of the Trump administration. They hit you on a visceral level when you are already down.
So, asking if this nation can be saved, has to start with the realization that the evangelicals who got US here are probably a lost cause, and they should no longer be deferred to as leaders. They failed US and they do not seem to care a whole lot. They'd still rather shoot the messengers and go on with their show.
The songwriter clearly felt that a nation can be turned back to God from sin, and I believe no one is beyond redemption. What is needed is true repentance, and I'm not seeing that from a lot of folks yet. The fact we are talking about it here, and the changes I and others have made over time are, however, quite encouraging. It is possible to change, and it does start with us, on a personal level.
We see what the danger is, we know that freedoms are being attacked, and we do not have to stand for it. It is in this sense that I believe this nation can be saved. In a repentant acknowledgement of our sin as a nation, we can choose to turn towards righteousness, and that starts with the Christians. Godliness cannot be imposed upon society as the Christian nationalists have tried and failed to do. The only way this heals is if we are willing to accept expertise, listen humbly to advice, learn from each other and respect the struggles of others.
In a word, we need humility.
There is far too much "proud Christian/proud American" nonsense on the Christian Twitter bios right now, when what we desperately need is humbled Americans. The humiliation of knowing our government does not care that we are injured when we protest unarmed and peacefully, is a wake up call to the disgrace our nation is facing, because of evangelical pride and arrogance.
There is also too much rage and anger that will get people harmed right now. When "Manic Street Preachers" (see song below) wrote about Welshmen casually discussing "shooting fascists" as if they were nothing, they hit on an important point about a loss of humanity. In our rage and anger at the rising tide of actual fascism we are seeing, as a result of this ill-advised evangelical administration experiment, we cannot excuse violence. At least, Christians should not. Peaceful people do not condone destruction of life and limb. This is why it appalls us that the government shoots anything at its own citizens for protesting injustice.
I'll take that further: it helps no one but Trump, when protesters riot and destroy property. That said, I understand the anger that leads to this. I understand it as grief. This is all part of processing pain as a community. But citizens should not want to give Trump that justification for his abuses, however infuriating it is, that there is one standard for the oppressor and another for the abuser.
Let me make one more point on that issue before moving on: what has been most appalling to most Americans I've interacted with online, is how destruction of life and limb has been the presidential response to destruction of property. So let me get this straight: the Tea Party who morphed into MAGA, are now on the moral side of the Crown, against the Boston Tea Party rioters? How very interesting.
Because, you see, our morals are for life, not just for Christmas. Under Trump, many of us have lowered our standards of speech, of treatment of others and our responses to others. If you're like me, we've rationalized this as a hybrid (online) warfare tactic, because things are just out of control right now globally and in our country. What's really happened is we have been unduly influenced and radicalized by the callousness of this brave new America.
There has been a deep need of time to grieve, time to be angry, and time to tear down the statues of abusers, whether literally or figuratively. God is not phased by this craziness. That doesn't mean God is numb to it, and nor should we risk becoming so. We need to face our griefs and sorrows and sins honestly, and with humility, with real, ongoing, hard work of change, this nation an be changed. With grace and the integrity that those we criticize lack, we can move past the disgrace of sin to a place of righteousness.
The problem right now is, what will we tolerate? And now that we are here, now that we are beginning to see some of the lies, will our culture keep slipping into the abyss of totalitarianism, or will we humbly reckon with the lies, abolishing them by the truth?
We have responsibility here, in whether or not this nation is changed. No blaming God's sovereignty for our sin. No more pointing the finger at others. It's time to humbly repent of callousness towards the lives of our neighbors, willful ignorance of historical precedent and a "faith" that is narcissistic.
Will freedom win?
We can't know what will come next from our government, but we do know we can't go on as citizens, in the direction we have been going. It's time to turn around, to change, to be humble, to repent.
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