Is There Any Confidence?
The entire world—yes, the entire world—is waiting, watching, anticipating America's next steps. As America goes, so go the world’s hopes that the flame of freedom cannot, will not, be extinguished.
To the world, America truly is the shining city on a hill.
The metaphor references Jesus Christ’s Sermon on the Mount. Presidents Kennedy, Reagan, and Obama spoke of America in this metaphor, as have national leaders Cruz, Pompeo, and Romney. As recently as President Biden’s inauguration in January 2021, Amanda Gorman referenced America’s ascent in her poem, “The Hill We Climb.”
As long as freedom’s beacon burns bright in America, there is hope for the world that freedom is possible, that freedom endures, and that a free people can flourish indefinitely, against all odds, and triumph over any evil.
The rancorous schism within America has more than the world’s attention. The world believes America’s future holds the world’s future in the balance.
When Benjamin Franklin was asked what type of government the Founding Fathers formed, he replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.”
Our forbearers argued extensively for civil virtue. Irving Kristol wrote about civic virtue forty-five years ago, saying,
It means curbing one’s passions and moderating one’s opinions in order to achieve a large consensus that will ensure domestic tranquility. We think of public-spiritedness as a form of self-expression, an exercise in self-righteousness. The Founders thought of it as a form of self-control, an exercise in self-government.
Obviously, America’s civic virtue is languishing and a watching world hangs in the balance. Whether we recognize it or not, the world-at-large understands that as America goes, so goes the world.
Trump is incorrigible. Biden is unbelievable. Harris is unthinkable, and those managing the halls of America’s government have fenced themselves off from the people with hundreds of armed troops. Anyone with an ounce of reasoning ability grasps that America’s constitutional republic is slipping in our grip and that Franklin’s admonition was prescient.
Whether liberal or conservative, all are looking to the mid-term elections as though gazing into a crystal ball to see if the ship of state, America, will right itself. If she does—if we do, if civic virtue is regained—then hope is restored. If not, all is lost.
Is it?
Is our future really attached to the midterm elections? Presidential pendulums? People in power who open America’s borders while shuttering our schools? Politicians who send billions of tax dollars abroad while American’s starve, who wholly devote themselves to making infanticide the law of the land, and lavish upon themselves payouts to a beholden constituency who will reelect them?
Let me be clear: I love America. I believe in her, stand beside her, and will readily sacrifice for her. I’ve traveled abroad a fair bit. Never once have I wished to stay in another place. America is unparalleled.
It troubles me to watch us fracture. It angers me to witness the woke who make up an American narrative to suit their whims and whimsical notions. It offends me profoundly that the Facebook censors have throttled my Facebook into inertia because I dared write candidly about abortion.
But, here we are.
Is there perspective to be had?
There is.
The message of Scripture is that this world is not our home. We are transient, passing through. It thrills us when we benefit from a government that does right and offends us when our country loses its grasp of civic virtue. But these experiences are not meant to establish either hope that government can be godly or disappointment that a country in tumult is a failed future.
We in the West, especially we who are Christians in the West, hope for a future that remains anchored in the Judeo-Christian values. And regardless of how the outside world thinks of America’s founding and constitutional republic, they hope for America’s success and her standard the world over. Because we are a free people, freedom’s hope extends to all who seek freedom, to all longing to believe their hope in freedom is not in vain.
I don’t possess a clear vision of America’s future. In fact, I have concerns that our fractures are worsening. This is the concern my friends abroad voice as well.
For us who are devoted followers of Jesus Christ, the question is not whether the Judeo-Christian ethic and founding of America prevails or not. The question is: Can we who are followers of Jesus Christ maintain a confidence that is anchored in faith, belief, hope, and the mercies of our heavenly Father regardless of America’s trajectory?
How America goes is currently unsettling.
But as Believers in Jesus Christ, we are citizens of the Kingdom of God. Our hope is not tied to Washington, DC. Our confidence is invested in the character of God and the finished, redemptive, transformative work of Jesus Christ. Our confidence is anchored upon the character of God and work of Jesus Christ.
Compare this surety with the daily news feeds.
There’s not much to compare and a lot to contrast. The take-away is that the confidence that is ours is so profound that we can engage a world twisting in the wind with hope, love, and confidence.
And what is our goal?
We do not seek to build a Christian government or a godly country. We seek to love, hope, and walk with such confidence that others see Christ in us and are compelled toward life in Him.