America’s Next Crossroad (Cont’d)
Where We Need to Be
While men and women of character, both in America and around the world, embrace law, liberty, and tolerance, we know all too well that this never marked the end of the story; it was just the beginning, which brings us to America’s next crossroad. In the past, tyrants, tyranny, and intolerance had been the norm for most of the world’s population, but now they represent isolated pockets. In the past, the rule of law, the way of liberty, and the hand of tolerance were in the minority, while today they are so much more prevalent, thanks to all that is good and right about America and its allies around the world. But sadly, since the dark days of the 1960s, in the aftermath of JFK’s assassination, the Vietnam War, and Watergate, the American landscape is awash with a terrible enemy: that enemy is cynicism.
Cynicism can best be defined as the tendency to always question the actions of others, no matter how honest or good they appear to be outwardly. The cynic, even in the face of evidence to the contrary, will always assume others have an ulterior motive, which is said to be a secret desire for money, prestige, and power, rather than intending it for the goodwill of others. As such, the cynic cares little for the historical facts surrounding the incredible strides that America has made on issues like the abolition of slavery, the suffrage of women, and the more humane treatment of our animal counterparts. So it will always be with the corrosive power of the cynical mind.
Story Continues Below
To watch author and historian W. Kent Smith discuss the contents of his book On Earth as It is On Heaven, at the Sacred Word Revealed Conference 2023, hosted by Zen Garcia, CLICK BELOW.
Story Continues From Above
And so, here we are, as a nation of law, liberty, and tolerance, standing at a crossroad, on the verge of choosing yet another direction in the course of our storied history. If Providence prevails, as it has always prevailed, the direction we take as a nation will no doubt make us even more of what we have always been destined to become. But make no mistake, we’ll never get to where we need to be by succumbing to the crippling cynicism that threatens our country today.
We need an antidote, then, for this disease, which is currently eroding every level of our society. Widespread cynicism has many people criticizing our most important institutions, from our government, to our educational system, from our families, to our houses of worship. They are being criticized because they’re said to be, among other things, racist, misogynist, and intolerant, and therefore they must be dismantled. According to the critics, nothing short of an outright revolution is required.
The problem with such demands, though, is they overlook a critical aspect of the discussion, which is that while institutions are made up of people, institutions themselves aren’t capable of racism, misogyny, or intolerance. Only people are capable of that. And as we all know from our own experience, not everyone is guilty of such things, just some. Some people are racist, some people are misogynist, some people are intolerant; that is without question. So to insist on dismantling institutions that have served not only America but the world on the presumed basis that they’re racist, misogynist, or intolerant seems to miss the point entirely. Far better to seek reformation of the things that can be reformed, the things which comprise these institutions, which is to say, people.
But rather than demand that people change, the critics insist that America itself is the real problem. However, in doing so, they simply reveal that they don’t really have the best interests of America and the world in mind. Something altogether different, then, is lurking within their zealous cries of racism, misogyny, and intolerance. Everywhere we turn, we see our most basic values as a nation being questioned in a non-stop effort to undermine the American way of life.
Taking a page from God’s own playbook—although a counterfeit version—the enemies of America have taken a new approach in their revolutionary effort. Rather than attack America in a head-on assault, they too are seeking to do their work from the inside out. But instead of appealing to “the better angels of our nature,” they’re pumping their favorite poison into every stream of public and private life: cynicism. Speaking of this very method of attack, President Lincoln predicted long ago:
At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reaches us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.1
Observations like this are vital to a work of this nature, because while it’s presented with an acute awareness of the political upheaval of the day, it’s by no means a political treatise about revolution, any more than it’s a psychological treatise about cynicism. This is, after all, a work about the prayer of Jesus that urges the God of Heaven to have His will be done on Earth. It’s about that expanding Empire—the coming of God’s Kingdom that the prophets of old spoke of and that Jesus sent into full swing with His death and resurrection. And it’s about the role that America, technology, and the New Earth are playing in this unfolding drama of the ages. So, while both the politics and the psychology of the day are relevant to this discussion, they will never constitute its main thrust.
