A read of Liberties for Wednesday, Oct. 13, WORLD’s Steve West editor@wng.org is both disheartening and encouraging simultaneously.
The Disheartening
First, it is disheartening to witness the widespread disunity in the American culture. Oh, yes, there has always been some serious cracks in the fabric of the culture. The most despicable crack was the toleration of slavery. That crack has been with humans throughout history as has greed which drives it. If Lincoln had not be assassinated, perhaps he would have promoted more reasonable cultural sift. However, carpetbaggers, while a pejorative term of southerners for virtually every northern come south, where a population of diverse motivities. Many took advantage of the post war situation for monetary reasons sowing discord in the process. So, yes, there has always been a measure of disunity. An honest read of history attests to this. Disunity will always be with us, but in this nation that disunity has been in the context of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
The Temporal Encouragement
Second, there is encouragement despite this disunity. This encouragement is this. There are more and more average citizens entering the fray. The growing totalitarianism of the liberal bent emanating from inside the Beltway, Big Corp, and self-contradictory academia (claiming academic freedom on one side and excluding faculty who exercise academic freedom on the other side) is more and more being challenged by John Q Public. High school athletes, grammar school students, various groups of students representing various student associations, parents at school board meetings—even with the threat of the DOJ treating them as domestic terrorist has not slowed their efforts.
More Temporal Encouragement
During the height of COVID we saw leftist governors acting like city state kings and queens. Michigan was so intolerable that, according to the news outlets, one man, very wrongly so, attempted to kidnap the self-proclaimed queen. Yet other governors, like Abbot and DE Santos have used every Constitutional tool at their disposal to thwart unconstitutional totalitarian mandates.
Another example of resistance of the every-day American, many risking their careers to do so, is the countering of Dr. Fauci’s absolutely confusing and ever-changing medical advice. His persona reminds me of a college dean I once knew—in fact, looks wise he could be a reincarnation of the dean—who without legitimate evidence. would mead out disciplinary action with a fierce look, a red face and bulging veins. Whether he is culpable for financing the development COVID and financially flourishing as a result I will leave for others to determine if the evidence is sufficient to pursue the case. The encouraging point is there seems to be more and more medical people willing to question and oppose his overreach and contradictory proclamations.
Christian Action as Encouragement
Yet another encouraging aspect of the disunity is the evangelical community ever increasing its resistance to attempts to disrupt, disturb, and dismantle religious liberty. Individual churches that stayed the course throughout the pandemic have found their numbers growing. I tend not to be a crowd person. You would not find me in the stands at an Alabama or Auburn football stadium—been a few times for my family’s sake and found it an uncomfortable place to be. Neither would you find me at a million-man march or in a parade on a January 20th. However, it is always encouraging to see those so inclined to exercise their right to assemble in defense of the Constitution and Right-to-Life and to see these numbers increasing.
The Personal Encouragement
The most encouraging aspect of this disunity is the amazing opportunities afforded the proclamation of the Gospel. The disunity has generated fear and anxiety. Those two sisters tend to drive people to seek comfort. There is no greater comfort than the love of God offered in the free gift of salvation. For the person already a believer who finds oneself living in fear and anxiously fretting is also seeking comfort. Many are finding that comfort in trusting the God for everyday life whom they are already trusting for the forgiveness of sin and the promise of eternal life. For them the Gospel, the good news, comes in the form of the whole counsel of God. That counsel starts with the knowledge of the character of God which informs his mind that God is in control, that God is all wise, that God is all knowing (this COVID did not sneak up on him), that He is all powerful, and that He executes all these attributes in love.
Implementing Courage Leading to Unity
My encouragement overrides the disheartening news cycle. The Word of God from the call of Abraham and the declaration of God’s plan for all people, to Moses and the amazing illustration of the Exodus, to Joshua taking courage to secure the Promised Land, to Nehemiah rebuilding the walls, to Daniel serving in multiple secular regimes, to the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, to the planting of the church by twelve incapable men to even imagine such a task, to the Reformation and the flourishing the Gospel worldwide, and finally to the promise to the return of Jesus Christ and the establishment of the eternal kingdom—I am encouraged. I may suffer—starvation, disease, persecution, even martyrdom—but I and all who trust God implicitly, through Jesus Christ, will experience eternal unity.