There's a consequence to having a mind transformed to Christ's – one where you take every thought and make it obedient to Him. The real-world effect of such a perspective is that you often feel completely out of place trying to make sense out of worldly solutions and the machinations of earthly power.
For example, in just the last couple of weeks, President Joe Biden and his administration's agents and defenders have been having an intense internal disagreement over what they perceive as the greatest threat facing the country.
On June 1st, while remarking on the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa massacre, Biden bizarrely stated that white supremacists presented the "most lethal threat" to the homeland. Then, just days later, Biden relayed a conversation he had with military leaders which seemed to offer
an entirely different "most lethal threat."
"When I went over to the tank in the Pentagon when I was first was elected vice president with President Obama, the military sat us down and let us know what the greatest threats facing America were, the greatest physical threats. This is not a joke. You know what the Joint Chiefs told us the greatest physical threat facing America was? Global warming."
That absurdity was met with appropriate haranguing from several quarters, to the point that top military officers felt the need to offer a third and fourth answer to the question of what poses America's greatest threat. Army Gen. Mark Milley, who serves as chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff for the president, told a panel of congressmen a day after Biden's climate remarks that the Commander-in-Chief was just speaking in generalities:
"Climate change does impact, but the president is looking at a much broader angle than I am. I'm looking at it from a strictly military standpoint. And from a strictly military standpoint, I'm putting China, Russia up there."
So, white supremacy, climate change, as well as geopolitical threats from China and Russia.
This is what I meant earlier about feeling like a stranger living in a strange land – I can't make sense out of any of that. Don't misunderstand – I think China and Russia are indeed rivals with great potential to cause damage to the global dominance of the United States. And white supremacy, where it exists, is outdated, gross, and evil.
But looking around the whole of American society, it's mind boggling to me that anyone could conclude that any of those things are even in the same zip code as the most serious problem we face as a people. As a student of the Word, as one who works daily to transform my mind to the Father's, as a man desperately seeking to conform my will to Christ's, I come away from every one of these interviews, speeches, and pronouncements with the feeling that I'm watching blind boxers, hopelessly hurling fists through the air just hoping to land a punch.
And they're not coming close.
American society is in outright rebellion to God and His moral order. We are in the midst of a month where we celebrate our "pride" in something God tells us will destroy a person both physically and spiritually. Adultery is almost expected these days, love is tragically confused with lust, and the heartbreaking rubble of broken commitments and shattered homes are left in the wake. Children are fatherless and motherless at record rates, being raised by a world of social technology that fuels vice and violence. Racism, having once been relegated to the dark corners of society's cellar of discarded ideas, is suddenly surging back into popularity.
Greed, pride, idolatry, depravity, and sensuality have seemingly become the only "American values" that unite us all these days. But we're supposed to believe a new Chinese jet, a Russian class of submarines, the Ku Klux Klan, or slightly warmer summers represent the most serious issue threatening the stability of our civilization?
It's inexplicable short-sightedness. Those who lead us today won't address our fundamental problem of sin or even acknowledge it, likely because they disagree with the fundamental solution to it. These figures embody the words of the prophet Ezekiel who warned, "They have eyes to see, but do not see, and ears to hear, but do not hear."
Which means it's up to those of us who do see and do hear to move forward as modern-day Noahs – standing on the steps of the Ark, facing mockery and derision to preach righteousness. If America has any hope, that's it.
