Yesterday Vanessa posted an essay called “There are no cats in America” about how she had been convinced that the USA was the greatest and best, without problems. Twice. And, having been raised as a child in Germany and married a German, to Germany she is returning. Because they do not pretend that they do not have problems.
She summed this up in a comment on that thread.
I think that’s true. My father is a True Patriot, and he’s solidly on the left. But when he talks of America, its of someplace I’ve never been to, where people have each other’s back (instead of spying on each other), where the schools are the best in the world (rather than churning out illiterates), where family and God is everyone’s priority (rather than conspicuous consumption), where if you work hard and save your money, you can provide your children with a better life than your own (rather than throwing your savings down a money hole).
To him, it’s still a real place, but I’ve never seen it.
Well, I have. I’m about 20 years older than Vanessa — I think — and I can remember the New Zealand of the 1970s as two movements began which have destroyed the old country. The first is feminism and the associated sexual revolution (I see the pill as a symptom of that, not the cause) which has led to the dissolution of familes and many women being childless. The second is the welfare state. I can recall — and this was before Vanessa was born — my Mum talking over the dinner table and saying that the Island women were afraid the welfare state would destroy their culture and way of life. And they were right.
We have reached the point where the tribe is failing and the readings for today do not make sense.
1For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest,
until her vindication shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning torch.2The nations shall see your vindication, and all the kings your glory;
and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will give.3You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
4You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate; but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married.
5For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your builder marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.
5Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.
6Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your judgments are like the great deep; you save humans and animals alike, O LORD.
7How precious is your steadfast love, O God! All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
8They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights.
9For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.
10O continue your steadfast love to those who know you, and your salvation to the upright of heart!
Now, back to the current situation. There is but one exceptional nation, and they are the Jews. None others. I believe in American Exceptionalism as much as I believe in British Isrealism, which is not at all. It is one of the virtues of living in a small country — our problems are obvious, to us, if not the world. We are set within families, tribes and nations, and we owe our leaders some due of loyalty.
But it is not a full measure. That belongs to God. And this leads at times to a breakdown within the civil structure which is resolved either in reformation or violence. In these times, I believe we need to stand on the gospel and not on our tribe, for our tribe may be heading for destruction, as Isaiah promised to Isreal. The Chaldeans who conquered Judah were no more by the time of the restoration under Ezra and Nehemiah.
Isaiah 43:14-19
14 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: For your sake I will send to Babylon and break down all the bars, and the shouting of the Chaldeans will be turned to lamentation.
15 I am the LORD, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.
16 Thus says the LORD, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters,
17 who brings out chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:
18 Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old.
19 I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
We have to be very careful here. Our nation is not God, and the voice of our people is not the voice of God. Nations have fallen into decadence and error before, and they will again. Nations have been destroyed by conquest, by division and civil war, and by a loss of the next generation because babes are neither concieved, nor allowed to be born, nor allowed the mother’s breast (death by exposure was common from the time of the ancients until the Manchu dynasty in China).
As Christians, what should we do?
Well, we should use the freedom of speech we have to protest. While we have it.
We should choose not to comply with evil laws. This may place us in jail.
And we should then either flee (as many did to the USA during the last (Hitlerian) crisis) or choose to fight — as an equal number of German Christians did in a hope to bring down the Nazis.
For this society — with its tendency to divide and conquer, to increase debt, and to preserve vice while punishing virtue — will not stay as it is now. It will change. It always has, and it always will. The disgust the younger generation have, with some justification, for their elders will ensure this.
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