Laying in bed the other night, my mind was swirling. I was thinking about a verse that has served as a lens through which I am now filtering reality in some way:
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. – Ephesians 6:12
I thought of the current political environment in America, how the lines are clearly drawn between left and right, christian and godless, Northerner and Southerner.
I wondered if there was a hidden determinant to all of this conflict, if the sides were equally drawn on the spiritual plane, as it were.
What if, since 65% of the citizenry identifies as Christian, the opposition to church outreach services and charities, is really just an anti-church movement in disguise? What if their unyielding promotion of state and government services for the poor is all about taking social influence away from the church and moving it over to themselves?
What if the idea that the government must take care of its citizenry like a parent does a young child is just the design of a godless institution competing vigorously against the influence of the church for the souls of men?
What if the movement to tax the middle and upper classes is likewise an anti-christian movement, as most millionaires identify as Christian? What if it designed to defund and defang the church by stressing its main funding sources to the point of breaking? What if it is akin to a religious tax that targets a protected minority, much like some Muslim-majority countries institute an abusive Jyzya tax on Christians living in their lands?
What if faith is the most important ingredient in the recipe for the making and maintaining of a free nation? What if the willingness to die for what is right and moral and just in the face of tyranny is the one thing that the authoritarian state must overcome in order to emasculate its citizenry, making them fearful, robotic conformists–impotent and flinching at its immense authority?
What if democratic, secular leftism is really, actually anti-christian sentiment and bias wrapped up in a political sophistry, much like the bible says of the devil, that he comes disguised as an angel of light? What if the road to hell truly is paved with good intentions? What if the road to hell is really paved with our own, all-so-human intentions?
What if the political lines, having been drawn, and then apprehended, really show a clear dividing line between good and evil, with no in between, no wriggle room.
It is a hard place to go, difficult to digest, distasteful in the mouth, even. Even the most fallible of Christians might find themselves rebuking these thoughts as too extreme, just all too much.
Even worse than all of that, speaking as a protestant Christian, what if the breakaway protestant church has been the main contributor to this societal divide, allowing disparate doctrine to be taught from one church to another, genetically distinct from traditional and authoritative christian ideologies? What if you lived in a country where, if you wished, you could easily find a church that is pro-choice, supports censorship of their neighbors in their community, and where its members hold no political or moral beliefs that distinguish themselves from the godless masses?
Isn’t Protestant America such a place?
What if the church’s ‘anti-gay’ beliefs are really pro-gay, pro-mental-health, pro-human, and like Jesus said: ‘the sabbath day of rest was made FOR MAN’S own good.’ What if modern-day views about racism and hate speech are not sins, and never were, because they are not consistent moral constructions? What if they are just secular, counterfeit euphemisms for evil? What if this alternative moral code being taught to our children is just a ruse to get them to take their eyes off of the time-tested dichotomy of good and evil and instead take the shiny, appealing apple of their own moral fruits to their mouths?
What if school lock downs are anti-christian in nature, as most people having children and having large families are Christian, and lock downs only serve to financially devastate the nuclear Christian family?
What if this is truly a spiritual war, a struggle against dark principalities and evil forces?
These are questions that I don’t think any Christian should sleep on.