Topical Studies
What the Bible says about
A Polluted Political Landscape
(From Forerunner Commentary)
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Proverbs 30:11-14
It is almost tangible—the feeling that a hammer-blow is about to fall. It is reinforced constantly—by news reports, images from the media, and direct personal experience—that the nation is coming apart at the seams and lurching wildly out of control. We witness the political demagoguery of leaders seeking their own ends rather than the good of those they claim to serve. We see the rich and powerful grow richer and more powerful, unconcerned with the plight of the common man except where it threatens to inconvenience them. We watch as national borders dissolve and cultures collide with tremendous friction rather than smooth melding, as we are continually assured is possible. We cringe as the various topics of the day are debated nationally, ones that were unthinkable just a few decades ago. That these and many other national and personal travesties continue unabated cause many, we hope, to cry out, even if only in their minds, "How much longer can this madness continue?" Instinctively, we know the answer: not long. Something has to give. The questions that remain are: How long do we have? How bad is it going to get? What will our nation look like afterward? Scholars have long been aware that the history of a given people tends to repeat itself in predictable cycles. Of particular interest is the work of authors William Strauss and Neil Howe in their book, The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy. In it, Strauss and Howe chronicle nearly 600 years of Anglo-American history that has a definitive, repeated pattern. It begins with a High (a time of civic order, purpose, and peace, such as the post-WWII 40s and 50s), followed by an Awakening (when the human spirit grows restless and calls the present order into question, which was seen during the 60s and 70s), an Unraveling (when the culture and institutions break down, as they did during the 80s and 90s), and finally a Crisis (when the nation flounders in chaos and faces an existential threat). Each of these "turnings" of the cycle lasts an average of about 20 years. Once the Crisis is resolved, the nation enters another High, and the cycle repeats itself. Strauss and Howe follow this cycle through the history of the British and American peoples. We are now at the tail end of the seventh iteration of this cycle, poised to enter what they term—interestingly enough— the "Millennial Crisis." Will there be an eighth cycle? Will the Anglo-American peoples find a way to refocus their energies and resources and emerge intact on the other side of this seventh crisis? Historically, Crises have involved massive economic hardship and total war—a chilling thought, considering the weapons systems now in the hands of various international players. Six times in this identified history, the Anglo-American peoples have rallied, sacrificed, and applied themselves to overcome enemies and other hardships to ensure national and cultural survival. But this seventh crisis has a major difference that urgently begs the question of whether there will be a victorious new beginning or the end of our national existence as we know it. By all accounts, during this seventh crisis, God is not welcome on the Anglo-American side. The United States began systematically barring God from public mention during the 1960s, and we are already reaping the whirlwind. The Creator, who has blessed this nation beyond any people in history because of His promises to Abraham, has been shunned, and those who trust in Him have been scorned. Christianity has given way to churchianity, where the focus is on packed stadiums of spectators, impressive incomes, and political outreach and activism. There is plenty of activity, but little biblical depth. This is not to suggest that all previous generations of Americans were upright and moral. Clearly, they were not. But compared to the present, there was at least a common understanding that there was a God, that the Bible was His Word, and that the role of churches was to teach from the Bible and point the people to God. There was a common understanding of morality, even if it was not righteously adhered to. But this very basic foundation is now gone. The picture is grim and getting worse. Even a national religious revival at this point—were it ever to come to pass—would be in name only. The national character is simply too soft. Barring God's intervention and direction, it would be easier to nail Jell-O to a tree than to turn these nations back to the Bible (see Jeremiah 13:23). Nationally, without God on our side, our chances of coming through this crisis intact are slim indeed—especially if we as a nation are viewing Him as an adversary! However, individually, there is much that we can—and should—do. We may not be able to effect a national change, yet we can certainly put our own houses in order. We can strive to invite God into every area of our lives, seeking Him at all times and submitting to His will. We can apply ourselves to prayer and Bible study so that through this daily contact with God, we learn how He thinks and how He operates. This will not guarantee immunity from hardship, but it will at least keep us in contact and alignment with the One who writes history and determines our place within in it (see Psalm 62:11; Isaiah 57:15).
David C. Grabbe
The Coming Anglo-American Crisis
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Isaiah 1:5-6
The political landscape is marred because our society at large is sick, from top to bottom. Isaiah is not speaking, of course, of physical bruises and disease but of spiritual and thus of cultural decay at work. He sees the nation as a body made up of many individuals (much as Paul describes Christ's body, the church, in I Corinthians 12), but because so many of the individuals are spiritually weak and sick, the nation itself is diseased throughout. The head, which he describes as "sick," represents the leadership, while the heart represents the patriots, those who work for the good of the country—and even it is "faint" or weak and faltering. Beyond these two critical areas, every part of the body from sole to pate is unsound. The prophet describes a sorry, almost hopeless condition. So the old adage is true: "People get the leaders they deserve." While the politicians may be constantly in the public eye, and their indiscretions thus become front page news, they are not altogether unlike their constituents. Can we claim that no voter has ever had a homosexual tryst? Is it possible that no voter ever took some money under the table to smooth the way for a deal? Certainly, no voter has ever hired an illegal alien to sweeten his bottom line! Or evaded paying his taxes. Or smoked pot or snorted cocaine. Or voiced an ethnic slur. Or dumped some engine oil down the sewer, etc. No, even beyond the all-important issues, politicians reflect those who back them. Some are fond of another saying: "Think globally. Act locally." It is a common mantra of environmentalists, who urge individuals to clean up their own acts, their own properties, as the best place to start to reform the whole world. The saying contains a true principle: A person can only change himself, and if we desire a large-scale transformation of behavior for the better, many individuals will have to resolve to change. Right now, the momentum of societal behavior runs steeply downhill toward degeneration and immorality. To shift that momentum back toward morality and Christian values will take a massive effort, one that may be beyond America's ability to achieve. But it will certainly never even get started if Christians themselves do not live for all their worth according to God's standards (Matthew 19:17). We cannot rely on being joined by thousands of fellow citizens, let alone millions of conservative Americans, in a counter-cultural revolution. We cannot expect media pundits and political leaders to lead the charge back up the hill toward decency and civility. We cannot hope that the fight to return justice, honor, and true freedom to the American character will be swift and easy—in fact, it may well be hopeless. Yet, despite the lack of expectation for society in general, the effort itself is noble and worthwhile to each individual who undertakes it because of the personal transformation it effects (Romans 12:2; II Corinthians 3:18). Politics is dirty, and because it involves the quest for temporal power, it has always been a nasty business. A moral society can keep this distasteful institution in check by sheer weight of influence, but when society itself is rolling in the gutter, politics has free rein to run roughshod over anyone and anything in its way. As Solomon says, "By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted, but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked" (Proverbs 11:11).
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
A Polluted National Landscape
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Isaiah 3:11-12
What does it say about a nation that . . . -
. . . makes an icon of a woman whose only claims to fame are to have posed nude for a magazine, married a nearly nonagenarian billionaire, had a drug problem, and conducted a string of affairs? -
. . . legally murders over a million unborn children each year? -
. . . during a time of war, essentially ignores multiple millions of illegal aliens—statistically shown to increase crime, lower wages, and burden government budgets—yet hounds smokers, drinkers, and eaters of trans-fats? -
. . . spends upwards of $85 billion on gambling each year, more than its citizens spend on the combined sales for amusement parks, spectator sports, movie theater admissions, and video games? -
. . . indulges in pornography to the point that the industry's known revenues, over $12 billion, roughly double those of all three major U.S. television networks? -
. . . goes out of its way to offend and hassle its own citizens rather than profile its enemies? -
. . . evicts God from public schools, public spaces, and essentially all public life yet allows blasphemies to be uttered dozens of times each hour on its public airwaves? -
. . . uses its deployed volunteer army, composed of a broad spectrum of dedicated, patriotic soldiers, as pawns to gain political power? In aggregate, what these statements of the current situation in the United States reveal is a profoundly sick, confused, and hypocritical society. They expose America as a nation adrift, unmoored to any firm system of beliefs or even of ethics, rocked and buffeted by every new wave of trouble, and at the mercy of cultural winds and currents out of any quarter. In short, it reveals a nation in crisis—in every sense of the term. Yet, too few of us seem to have noticed. Our fourth estate, whose job it is to inform the nation about what is going on, has succumbed to one of two—or both—failings: 1) The media have changed the emphasis of their reporting from information to entertainment, and/or 2) they have deliberately or unknowingly incorporated partisan biases into their products, becoming organs of political rather than national interests. While it can be argued that from its earliest days, the American media have been partisan, so nothing has changed, today's news outlets have far greater reach and persuasive abilities than did their nineteenth-century counterparts. Whatever the argument, the result is that the typical citizen is unaware of the depth of America's crisis. The news—even the hyped, slick, up-to-the-second product aired 24/7 on multiple stations—has to compete for attention with situation comedies, dramas, movies, video games, and the Internet, and it loses miserably. America's political representatives fare little better, if better they are. A statesman or -woman who really had the nation's best interests at heart would not be unafraid to take a principled stand against its troubles and to inspire patriots to overcome them. But there are no statesmen or -women, just politicians, desirous of reelection and the accumulation of personal power. We see no truly American leadership from the White House, Congress, the Supreme Court, or really anywhere, for that matter. In Washington, grandstanding on Sunday morning news programs or engaging in bitter partisan fights over silly line items or amendments to a bill is what passes for "leadership" these days. And politicians wonder why so few Americans vote? Christian ministers from coast to coast have virtually rolled over and played dead. Rather than let their voices ring from their pulpits, decrying the rise of so many blatantly anti-Christian cultural trends, they have weakly submitted to their fears of losing their weekly take at the offering basket and busied themselves in the terribly important work of overseeing the installation of big screens and the latest sound equipment for the Christian rock band that plays during the contemporary service. Worse, most of the mainline churches have backpedaled on biblical morality to the point that they are difficult to label as even nominally "Christian." They may proclaim Christ as Lord, but they proclaim little that He believed and preached. Finally, and tragically, the most important leaders in America have also abrogated their responsibilities: parents. American dads and moms have spoiled the few kids that they have, buying them whatever they want, instilling in them little sense of responsibility or self-discipline, and letting them make too many critical decisions on their own. Instead of being parents, they have desired to be best friends with their children, who have, frankly, walked all over them, aided and abetted by big business and the entertainment industry. Thus, the culture caters to the youth, attempting to fulfill all their fantasies without truly considering whether or not they are beneficial for them or their country. With a bit of backbone, parents could have slowed or even stopped the cultural decline, but it is far too late now. What does it say about a nation that lacks both the heart and the leadership to stop itself from committing suicide? In short, He says we are headed for a fall.
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
What Does It Say?
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