Alienated from the Country We Love

“Trump Impeached Again” is blared across the Washington Post in massive block letters. With seven days left in his presidency, President Trump has been impeached for inciting a spontaneous storming of the U.S. Capitol building on January 6.^[1] Never mind that protesters breached the perimeter of the Capitol building a full twenty minutes before President Trump finished delivering his speech at the White House, 2.3 miles from the Capitol.^[2][3] Never mind that carefully constructed improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were found, revealing that this was not a spontaneous event.^[4] Never mind that the FBI admitted Tuesday that it had alerted Washington D.C. law enforcement to information received ahead of January 6 that some—including Black Lives Matter and Antifa^[5]—were planning a “war” on the Capitol, including killing officers.^[6] Never mind that the New York Police Department is reported to have given the Capitol Police similar intelligence of impending violence.^[7] Never mind that the chief federal prosecutor in Washington is pursuing conspiracy charges, indicating that the attacks on the Capitol involved multiple acts and multiple conspirators working in concert with each other.^[8] As former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik says, “If these reports are true, you cannot incite a group that already pre-planned acts of violence by days or weeks, and it raises serious questions as to what security precautions were taken at the Capitol as a result.”^[9]

Once more, our nation finds itself in uncharted territory. This snap impeachment was so rushed that there is not even sufficient time for the Senate to conduct a trial, begging the question of whether a president can complete the impeachment process after he has already left office.^[10][11]

What has become of our country? Far too many Americans look around themselves and simply fail to recognize America. A brief survey of recent events reveals how far we’ve drifted from our historical moorings:

• Fear of an invisible enemy has crippled our country. Healthy and productive citizens are arrested for refusing to depend upon the government for their livelihood.^[12][13] Citizens are even arrested for endeavoring to vote without wearing face masks.^[14] And schools and churches are not permitted to convene in the name of public safety, while bars, strip clubs, and marijuana shops are deemed essential businesses.

• “My body, my choice” prevents anyone from interfering with a woman’s bodily autonomy—even if it would protect the life of a vulnerable unborn human being—but companies may mandate employees receive a controversial COVID-19 vaccine that has yet to be fully FDA approved in the name of saving lives and protecting the vulnerable.^[15] Likewise, students in our nation’s second largest school district will be required to receive a COVID-19 vaccine if they wish to receive in-person education.^[16]

• President-Elect Joe Biden has vowed to carry out nearly every major proposal on the LGBTQ wish list, including re-instating Obama-era policies requiring schools to permit students to access bathrooms, locker rooms, and sports teams that match their gender identity.^[17] And the U.S. House of Representatives just approved replacing common terms with gender-neutral language in the official House rules document.^[18]

• America’s most trusted news outlets have become more committed to political agendas than to the truth. Pulitzer prizes were awarded in 2018 to the New York Times and the Washington Post for their “deeply sourced, relentlessly reported coverage” of something that, according to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report to the Department of Justice, did not exist.^[19][20] In 2020, the New York Times received another Pulitzer Prize for its “1619 Project”—something five leading historians called “distorted,” “misleading,” and “not true,” declaring, “If supportable—the allegation would be astounding—yet every statement offered by the project to validate it is false.”^[21]

• The label of an Indie musician terminated their relationship because he posted that he had peacefully attended the January 6 Trump rally.^[22] A lawyer for an insurance company was fired for posting on Instagram that he had peacefully attended the same Trump rally.^[23] And Senator Josh Hawley’s book deal was cancelled after he officially challenged the electoral vote on January 6.^[24]

• President Trump was attacked for calling critical race theory—the divisive, Marxist ideology underpinning much of the riotous Black Lives Matter protest movement—“un-American propaganda” and for using an executive order to ban training on “white privilege” and “racial sensitivity training” among federal agencies and contractors.^[25][26] All-the-while, President-Elect Joe Biden’s plan to “dispense with ‘America First’”^[27] was praised, along with former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis’ call to scrap our America first policy.^[28]

• Several state legislators, after holding hearings and conducting investigations into allegations of widespread election fraud, put forth resolutions to decertify the election results and/or called upon their governors to reassemble congress for the purpose of decertifying the results due to the preponderance of evidence.^{[29][30][31][32][33][34]} Nonetheless, the vast majority of these allegations have been ignored, the courts have repeatedly used obscure technicalities to avoid hearing any legal case on the merits, and when 109 congressmen challenged the validity of some electoral certificates, another member of Congress drafted a resolution to have them sanctioned and removed from office.^[35]

• After months of flagging and suppressing all posts questioning the integrity of the election, Big Tech has now purged tens of thousands of users^[36] and even alternative social media platforms for conservative voices.^[37] Anyone questioning the validity of the election,^[38] 70,000 followers of QAnon,^[39] the #WalkAway movement,^[40] the second largest podcast in the nation,^[41] and even the elected leader of the “Free World”—President Donald Trump^[42][43]—have been silenced and banned by Big Tech. And now Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez has said that Congress is “looking into media literacy initiatives” to help “rein in” unapproved press reports to combat “disinformation.”^[44]

What has become of our country? Far too many Americans look around themselves and simply fail to recognize America. Others are convinced that the Republic is dead, and our country is doomed. It seems that we have become the very things that we’ve long decried, prompting Americans on both sides of the political aisle and from all walks of life to feel increasingly alienated from their home country. The natural response is sorrow, anger, fear, despair, and cynicism.

However, we as Christians need not fall prey to this mentality. Rather, we have reason to be encouraged in these troubling times.

It is natural for God’s people to feel alienated from the culture and politics of their home nations because we have transferred our citizenship. Colossians 1:13 reminds us, “[God] has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” This is why the Apostle Paul declares, “Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Php. 3:20). Moreover, Hebrews reminds us that we are not alone in feeling alienated from our surrounding culture and politics, “[The heroes of the faith] were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. … [T]hey desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one” (Heb. 11:13–14, 16).

In all honesty, has this been our heart’s cry? Have we longed for another homeland? Have we persevered from day to day living in America with the hope of eventually being welcomed into our true country? Or have we become like the Israelites who found the comforts of Egypt more attractive than the promises of God (Exo. 16:2–3)? Perhaps the relative stability, security, and freedoms that we’ve long experienced as Americans have successfully enticed us to shift our focus and hope from our true country and its king to this world.

How many of us have been so disinterested in the promises of heaven that we have been willing to go to any length and sacrifice any greater good to preserve our lives through this time of COVID-19—including neglecting our great commission? How many of us have become greater proselytizers for a politician than we have for Jesus Christ? How many of us have found ourselves willing to sacrifice our lives in service to America and our patriotic duty, yet we are not willing even to be scorned for our true king? How many of us have watched the steady decline of morality and faith in our country without alarm, only to now be grieved over the possible collapse of the Republic?

It may be that God is permitting an existential crisis in America for the purpose of drawing people back to Himself. This was the experience of Israel in 2 Chronicles 15:3–6:

For a long time Israel was without the true God, and without a teaching priest and without law, but when in their distress they turned to the LORD, the God of Israel, and sought him, he was found by them. In those times there was no peace to him who went out or to him who came in, for great disturbances afflicted all the inhabitants of the lands. They were broken in pieces. Nation was crushed by nation and city by city, for God troubled them with every sort of distress.

We have certainly been a nation afflicted with every sort of distress. Worse, many anticipate greater times of difficulty as we embrace a kind of soft totalitarianism. It just might be that the idea of America must diminish in order that it may no longer overshadow the good news of the kingdom of God.

By no means should we abandon efforts to see truth preserved and righteousness embraced in our nation’s institutions. Neither should we adopt a fatalistic mindset about America’s future. However, these efforts will be futile if we do not first place our true hope and confidence in our future country and king. Far from despairing and becoming cynical, we ought to see this as a unique opportunity in our nation’s history to draw people back to God.