“. . . the United States of America will remain the greatest force for freedom and human dignity that the world has ever known.”
So ends today’s Statement by the President on the Report of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
The Senate report in question, known as “The Torture Report”, chronicles all sorts of activities that would no doubt be automatically interpreted by most sane Americans as the inherently evil acts of a State gone mad with power…if it was the Russians who were said to be doing these things.
Or the Nazis.
Or the Iranians.
Or the North Koreans.
Or the…well, you get the picture.
But here in the happy land of Jack Bauer and “ends justifies the means” patriotism, not only are such activities not evil, they’re flat out rockin’! They’re not only necessary, they’re cool. They represent we, “the greatest force for freedom and human dignity that the world has ever known”, at our bad guy crushing, terrorist tenderizing best. And they are paving the way for much more and far worse to come…both “over there” and right here at home.
Yeah, it might be ugly stuff we’re talkin’ about here, but this is just “how the ‘real world’ works”.
Ya gotta do what ya gotta do, dontcha know?
Unless you’re Russia, Syria, Iran, or any other country not named (or at least very closely aligned with) ‘Merica.
Oh sure, things like truth, right, wrong, law, order, coherence and hypocrisy might be worthy of more serious consideration in this context in some idealistic fantasyland where things like objective truth and God actually exist, but here in “the real world”, the bottom line is power and the willingness of “good guys” to use it to do “the right thing”.
How we even begin to determine what is actually “good”, “right” or “true” is another story, of course, but here in ‘Merica we don’t tend to concern ourselves with such trivial matters. Who has time to actually define or understand “right” and “good” when there are so many bad guys out there to hunt down, torture and kill?
Who has time to ponder the rank hypocrisy and vulgar inconsistency of our chasing down ISIS leaders with drones in far away lands while we roll in autopilot mode through the systematic mass murder and dismemberment of roughly 1,000,000 of our own babies right here in ‘Merica year after child-sacrificing year?
Who has time to ponder the long-term impact of an “ends justify the means” approach to everything in a context where nothing is purposefully defined and tested biblically?
Who has the time to think about what happens after individual freedoms of potential terrorists (aka “everyone”) are mostly swept away in the name of “fighting terror”?
Who has the time to consider the long term goal of those who are purposefully guiding us down this hyper-relativistic path?
Do we even care that there are folks in that role? Do we even know that there are folks in that role? Do we even want to know?
I know, I know…even thinking these thoughts is very uncomfortable, increasingly perceived as inherently un-American, and, of course…grounds for suspicion.
We all know that this (and every other) bit of online writing and activity is being monitored by our good and gracious American State (for our own good, of course).
We wouldn’t want any as of yet unconfirmed and unconvinced terrorists (aka “everyone”) having access to things like freedom of privacy and freedom of speech, now would we?
Our loving American State – waving our cherished flag and accompanied by our favorite patriotic tunes – should only be thanked for increasingly protecting us from the scourge of true freedom, privacy, and liberty. After all, only the government and its owners should have privacy (as they do). The rest of us should happily surrender the burden of privacy (and other burdensome “rights”) to our State and Corporate keepers so that they can more effectively protect and take care of us.
If the powers controlling ‘Merica tell us something is good, then it is good.
If the powers controlling ‘Merica tell us that something is right, then it is right.
If the powers controlling ‘Merica tell us that God/god is on our side, then it must be so.
This is where even the FOX Newses and CNNs of the world find creepy Orwellian harmony. While they take wildly alternative routes to the same destination, their ultimate settling place is always in adoration of the State and the defense (or, more accurately, the presumption) of its inherent supreme authority in all realms of life here in what they tell us again and again is “the real world”.
At the end of the day, if it’s wrapped in our flag or wearing our uniform, it is beyond serious critique.
At the end of the day, the American State is the best that we have to hope or live for. It is the high bar for humanity. It is “the greatest force for freedom and human dignity that the world has ever known.”
[insert “U! S! A!” chant here]
Yes, people actually believe this.
Tens of millions of ’em, anyway. May of them even think themselves “conservatives” and/or “Christian”.
Who said public schools were a failure?!
See where generations of State-controlled “education” takes people?
It’s gotten us to to exactly the place that the State would have us to be: Compliant, submissive, and utterly dependent…and we are in this pathetic state of Statism first and foremost because the professing Christian church has led us here.
When Christianity abdicated its role as the greatest force for true freedom and human dignity that the world has ever known, the Statists were bound to take the reins.
They always do.
For confirmation, read a history book. (Even then bad ones can’t help but cover what happens when a state is given the power that we are now being systematically “educated” to give the emerging Orwellian American State.)
And it always goes to hell after that.
Always.
And why?
Because God’s creation is all always subject to the rule of His nature as defined in His Word.
Always.
Which is why every enemy of God from the serpent in Eden to the Statists here and now would have everything separated from any explicit connection to His nature. The same Christ-dismissing pursuit of knowledge (and everything else) first advocated by the serpent in Eden is now the centerpiece of the State-controlled children’s “education” systems that have for generations now programmed our culture.
And now we are, living in the shadow of an openly freedom-destroying, God-hating, Christian-persecuting Orwellian American State.
But wait, before you go writing America and its culture off as the inevitable loss so often proclaimed by bad Christian eschatology (and Left Behind movies), there’s no need to panic…no need to be bummed…
It’s not all bad.
As a matter if fact, it’s ultimately quite good.
Great, even.
Get this: We – the true Church in America – have been purposefully placed right here and now in this time and place so that we might wage war on this godless, idolatrous beast of a system. We, by the grace and for the purposes of Jesus Christ the King of creation, have been called and equipped for the incredible mission that now lies before us.
How cool is that?!
How amazing is it that in this dark storm in this dark land He might choose and use us to stand and advance His Kingdom?
We have all that we need: Him.
His nature as revealed in His Word containing His Gospel and our Great Commission mandate to make disciples who will learn and do all that He has commanded right here and now…
What more could we need?
What more could we even imagine or want?
We have the living, ruling, King of creation calling, equipping, and personally leading us in this great campaign of the age!
We are here purposefully to proclaim His intimate, complete lordship over every realm of His creation – His personal identity as the object and goal of all true life, liberty, art, history, science, economics, government, law, and everything else!
What a privilege to carry that banner!
What an honor to proclaim that truth!
There’s a reason you won’t hear that in public schools.
Or on Fox News or CNN.
Or through Rush Limbaugh.
Or Mark Levin, Michael Savage, or Sean Hannity.
The reason that you won’t hear that is because it is the truth – the only truth that can save us: Jesus Christ acknowledged and obeyed as Lord in every realm of His creation.
That is the truth that we’ve been given to lift high. That is the truth through which this dark and dying culture can and will be saved…one supernatural salvation at a time.
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© 2014 Scott Alan Buss – All Rights Reserved.