I also know that my little readership is likely not going to share my blog post too far. Fortunately, that means that few people I DON'T know will enter the discussion; and unfortunately, few will likely benefit from it (if any benefit may be forthcoming). But for those who care, I will proceed.
Our nation's problems, at the deepest level, come from a worldview divide. That divide is deep. Our solutions are dependent upon our worldview, and when our solutions collide, it is directly related to our worldview collision. Unfortunately for our nation, we have splintered into far too may differing worldviews to find an acceptable middle ground - or means of arriving at solutions to our modern-day national struggles. Sometimes, the worldviews are so opposite there is no compromise possible. How we got to this point is a history lesson, and would take too long for me to put that into this post.
THEOLOGICAL WORLDVIEWS
At the core of everyone's worldview is his theology. In our day of individualism, theological worldviews are becoming many and widely variant. There's no way to address them all, so I'll lump a few together in my discussion of them.
There are, as I see it, the following theological worldviews: Theism, Atheism, Mysticism, and naturalism. Within each of these three worldviews come a myriad of variants. For instance, Christianity and Islam are both theistic, but widely different. Christianity itself has differing worldviews. Evangelicals take the Bible pretty literally. Liberal denominations are often more in line with secular humanism couched in Christian terminology. Buddhism and Hinduism may be similar mystical worldviews, yet the afterlife concepts can vary widely. Native American animalists are part of the naturalistic worldview that depends on nature, but many secular humanists hold worldview ideas regarding the animal aspects of humanity. Atheism varies only somewhat, and for the purposes of this discussion (I'm not being dogmatic about it), includes gnostic and agnostics as well.
We cannot claim that America is a people of any of these worldviews predominantly. We do not hold a national theological worldview. That directly affects the solutions we propose and the ones we will accept. It also means that the political process of finding the acceptable compromises we need to face our challenges takes longer than we have because those challenges are changing too quickly. Before we've solved the first, a second and possibly third has become urgent.
POLITICAL WORLDVIEWS
Our nation is also divided politically - and I don't mean Democrat vs. Republican vs. Independent. We also have Constitutionalists, Tea Party, and rapidly becoming a significant portion of our country's population - Muslims (who believe that their theology should be law of the land - Sharia Law). It has always been tough trying to solve the political problems of our day when we were purely a two-party nation. But, try as we might, we are becoming more fragmented than that. The variety of theological differences is working out into a variety of political differences - so much so that we cannot compromise. No faithful Muslim would ever compromise in the first place; patiently endure something else while working for national Sharia, they may do. Constitutionalists are diametrically opposed to liberals regarding the 1st and 2nd Amendments - while some liberals want the entire Constitution abolished. We also have Socialists, Communists, and fascists among our population. The upheaval is huge, and unity seems so very far away.
HISTORY VS. CONTEMPORARY
It hasn't always been this way. Our nation was founded at a time when Christianity was so prevalent that the Judeo-Christian ethic of right and wrong was nearly universal. The ten commandments were seen as beneficial for any society - especially one that was just taking off. When the issue of slavery became a national conversation, coupled with expansion, our nation soon found herself in war. During the reconstruction years and into the industrial era of our country, a second Great Awakening occurred, and whatever slide from committed Christianity we may have faced during the early to mid-1800's was becoming increasingly either evangelical Christian or secular. The drive for money soon grew until the bubble burst during the Great Depression. Then our nation began to see that materialism is not as important as survival. Uniting our nation was the Second World War. America - military as well as civilian - went to battle together against common enemies. Our neighbors became essential to national and global survival. If a person didn't fight overseas, they worked to manufacture equipment for those who did. The whole country entered the fight. Never since have we fought as a nation.
Now we fight by sending our military while we try to remain self-centered back home. Now, we have those in power trying to remove any conversation of a God from the public square - especially evangelical conversation: Bibles, Jesus, heaven, hell. Our nation is trying to turn on its Christians. The Judeo-Christian ethic is giving way to the new morality - eroticism and liberalism. The battle for predominance is in full swing here in the USA. But there is one more battle taking over our land - Sharia Law. Sharia Law is opposed to the Judeo-Christian ethic, and encourages overthrow at all costs - violent when possible, more subtle approaches when it is not. The Sharia-proponent considers all non-Sharia proponents to be "infidels" who are targeted for extermination. That puts the humanist, mystic, atheist, or theist (non-Muslim) at odds with Sharia. Unfortunately for America, the subtlety of Sharia-proponents includes lies that they really want peace. The liberals and too many Constitutionalists find their world-views working against them. The other theists (Christians, Jews, etc.) all differ in their solutions. Therefore, the only thing left is the continued Shia advancement - via violent or other means. Until our nation faces our enemies together, we cannot win. But America must come together. We must first acknowledge our enemies. If we continue to battle over just WHO our enemies are, we render ourselves incapable of defending ourselves.
America, we may not agree on much - but can we at least agree that those who support and seek to advance Sharia Law are our enemies? They have declared WE are theirs! And they have said they wish to kill us. If we don't acknowledge this, all that is left is for us to lay down to be slaughtered. When we agree on who our enemies are, then we will be able to identify them if they are foreign OR domestic - and defeat them.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I know my readers likely know I am a Christian - an evangelical Christian. I have learned first-hand that these issues have a root far deeper than mere religion or politics. That root is called "Sin" in the Bible. Sin comes in many forms. A simple definition of sin is "that which is against the nature or will of God." Mankind is born sinful - we naturally do and think that which is against the nature or will of God. Mankind, according to the Bible, must be born again by faith in Jesus Christ. The person who puts their trust in Christ will find their wants changing from doing what our feelings or cravings push us to do to doing what our Lord wants us to do. We who experience that change of desire are experiencing the new life that comes through Jesus Christ. Our works/deeds don't save us; Jesus does.
When our nation - filled with states, communities, families, and individuals - once again has enough people who have experienced that new life through Jesus Christ, we will once again become unified theologically and more unified politically (there will always be some disagreement about solutions to problems in a country). We will have made a choice to reject Islam. We will recognize that our real enemy is really sin - in all its forms: theological, political, and social. We will again be one nation.
Will YOU accept Jesus Christ as YOUR Savior over YOUR sin today?
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