Singing Sweet, Sweet Lies in the “Land of the Free” and the Home of the NSA

A.W. Tozer once said that “Christians don’t tell lies, they just go to church and sing them”.

Sad and true as that observation may be, lying to one’s self by song is hardly an affliction unique to believers.

It’s human nature to imagine that uncomfortable truths aren’t really true at all or, if they are, that they don’t matter much. It’s also human nature to combat what we see as an unsettling truth in our peripheral vision by focusing more and more intently on a happy distraction.

Often these distractions are flat out lies.

Often these lies are explicitly associated with the “uncomfortable truth” we are trying to avoid in the first place.

None of this is coincidental.

It’s not very comfortable or fun either, which is why we don’t think about these things much.

And since we don’t think about these things much, we tend to fall for the same tricks again and again and again.

With that in mind, maybe we should take a sec to think about the truthfulness of the things we tell and even sing to ourselves…

One of the more glaring signs o’ the times where our culture and civilization is concerned is the sad but undeniable reality that American pride and patriotism have become ruling idols in the minds and hearts of a great many professing Christians here in Romans 1 America. And before you go thinking that I’m being a bit (or way too) harsh or dramatic with lingo like “ruling idols”, please allow me to explain.

By “idol”, I simply mean to present the straightforward biblical concept that covers anything that supplants the lordship and authority of Christ as revealed in His Word.

His Word tells us a lot about the cost of exalting anything above Him, including one’s notions of patriotism, liberty or freedom. It also makes plain, particularly in Romans 1, that ours is a culture under the judgment of God.

One defining attribute of a culture pridefully engaged in persistent sin (rebellion against God) is that the minds of its people are “given over” and they become “fools”.

Foolishness is again and again ascribed in Scripture to those who persist in rebellion against the nature and authority of God as revealed in His Word, and few terms describe our culture’s present state more accurately than “given over” and “foolish”.

One term that might give those two a run for their money, however, is prideful.

If there’s one thing that we have been trained to be as Americans, that thing is prideful.

It would seem that our self-referential pride, after many decades, has finally led us to open foolishness of the sort that ought to embarrass and shame us into critical examination, recognition, and repentance of our folly.

But we don’t do repentance.

We’re Americans.

Repentance is for the French.

Or the Chinese, Russians, Germans, Japanese, and such.

And if we’re good, patriotic, conservative Americans, then we really don’t need (or do) repentance.

Repentance is for Democrats.

Or liberals or progressives or Muslims.

Yep, repentance is for them; not for us.

This is the American Spirit of our time. Pride and arrogance have captivated us, and as a result, in true Romans 1 fashion, we are increasingly saying, doing, and believing the stupidest things…

We put our hands over our hearts and pledge allegiance to an “indivisible” political union or State, when the fact that there ever was a USA in the first place is rather compelling (and kind of obvious) evidence that its founding fathers rejected the notion of indivisible political unions. More than that, they believed it to be the right and duty of citizens to dissolve any political union that became abusive of its people…which is precisely what they did…to found America…whose people now pledge fidelity to an indivisible political union on the very day that they celebrate their “independence”.

Stupid, stupid, stupid…

…or, perhaps better said: Foolish, foolish, foolish.

We speak of God and America as if the latter is the apple of the former’s eye. We act as though God inherently favors and adores America, and could never do otherwise. We seem to think He needs us, rather than we need Him.

We. Are. Nuts.

Prideful, arrogant, unrepentant nuts.

We sing about this being “the land of the free” and boast of our love of liberty and freedom at the same time we agree to bend over on command so that the TSA can look for al-Qaeda in our underwear at the airport, the NSA can record our every conversation, and the Federal Reserve can craft our own fiat slavery through its unlimited production and manipulation of fiat currency.

One abomination after another has come to captivate and define us over the past 150 years or so, and the endgame is now here. The “land of the free and the home of the brave” has become, via Romans 1 judgment, a land of slaves, liars, and cowards.

With echoes of “land of the free” and “God bless America!” still bouncing around the countryside in echo form after our celebrations of “independence” earlier this month, we are well served to take a serious, sober, unwavering look at what America is, rather than what we have been told or would like to imagine her to be.

In one of last week’s splashes of cold water on the cracking façade of Corpo-Fascist faux America, The Guardian posted an article describing the comprehensive nature of mass mind manipulation by the State here in the “land of the free” and the home of the NSA.

Later in the same week we were treated to a report informing us that the goal of the NSA is “total population control”.

The day after that encouraging gem, we heard that Amazon.com is partnered with the CIA.

The Corpo-Fascist State is roaring into gear on all fronts right before our eyes, with daily reports of significant strides towards an Orwellian State being born right here, right now…

…and we dare to sing about this being “the land of the free and the home of the brave”…

Nuts…it’s just nuts.

And sad.

And pathetic.

May God break us and grace His people with repentance so that there might be true restoration right here and now, while there is yet time.

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For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Romans 1:18-21 (emphasis added)

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© 2014 Scott Alan Buss – All Rights Reserved.

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