What They Really Want Is to Reshape America

None of this is rooted in reality.

Even though I gave up my habit of watching cable news, I’m still aware of what’s going on in the world.

So, here I am, coming to you from the safe confines of my humble abode on the banks of the Ouachita River in North Louisiana, kicked back in my camouflage recliner, just contemplating the state of affairs in America. It’s not just the debacle in Afghanistan or the gender identity debate or the racist critical race theory evangelists — it’s the whole ball of wax. It’s all of it.

The truth is, though, those things aren’t the real problem – they’re just symptoms of a far more insidious disease. And what is that disease? As I’ve preached for 40 years, the cancer eating away at our nation’s soul is that America has lost its connection with its spiritual roots. 

Unfortunately, the kind of nonsense we see going on in 2021 is what happens when individuals or nations stop identifying as image bearers of God. But we crave identity, to wrap our fingers around something or some idea that will tell us we matter. If not God? Well, we’re forced to latch on to an untold number of false identities. We base them on things like ethnicity, gender, and sexual preference. I dealt with this in depth in my movie “Torchbearers.”

No man and no nation can truly prosper for generations without a belief that man is created in God’s image.  Once we base our identity on something else, we wind up with the kind of chaos we see unfolding before our eyes right now. That’s because nothing else has any substance to it.  We latch on to the unsubstantial, on to stuff that has no meat to it — to stuff in our heads. Nothing that mainstream America is pursuing will last, and it will not fulfill us. The world needs to know this!

As an illustration of what I’m talking about, one of the craziest ideas to pop up from the identity warriors is that we’re now having serious academic types promoting the idea that it’s hurtful to describe breastfeeding human beings as women. It is the language of exclusion. I’m shaking my head because recognizing natural divisions between genders is exclusionary. By nature, you are one or the other. 

According to these people, the problem arises when, for example, a biological woman identifies as a man. You’re using language that is not inclusive to the “man” who can actually breastfeed. They wrote a whole paper on it which you may read if you so desire. But let me summarize if for you for brevity’s sake. Breastfeeding should be referred to as “chestfeeding” and mother’s milk as “parent’s milk.”

So, let me get this straight: For 5,000 years, breastfeeding humans were universally recognized as women. Women have always been the ones who were capable of lactating and feeding their young with the milk that naturally emanated from their breasts. It’s a gift from the Almighty. It was a universal recognition for one very good reason — it was rooted in reality. It was real. No one doubted it. But now, when a large chunk of the world is confused about just what it means to be a man or a woman, we have to go down this path. Without our identity being rooted in God, there is no reality and no identity. We must grab on to something to convince ourselves that we are important. Sadly, we too often grab a fistful of air. Chest milk, indeed.

All of these examples aren’t the real problem though, and we shouldn’t act as if they are.  Yes, I am concerned about the arguments folks are making that promote godless and deadly philosophies, but they’re only a smokescreen for what these people really want. 

And what is it they’re actually after? It should be clear to us by now that what they’re truly after is to reshape America. They love confusion and chaos. They want to take an axe to our spiritual and godly roots to kill the tree. And what they want to replant is a tree that bears the fruit of godlessness in order to generate as much confusion as possible, all so they can exercise the greatest amount of control over the population. 

Our founders understood one thing: When God is at the center of a nation’s worldview, it’s hard to subdue the population because they realize that we’re all created for liberty. Take away God, and it’s easy to convince the masses that the greatest threat to them is not the loss of liberty but the loss of safety. People who seek freedom are willing to die for it. Those who are unsure about eternity are convinced that we are only one global warming event, one pandemic, or one mass shooting from extinction. 

I love them all, and that’s why I want them to know the truth.

Here’s how I live. While I am concerned for the future of the United States of America, I am not living in fear. I live by the Spirit of God who said:

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline (2 Timothy 1:7)

As a result, I won’t make the mistake of spending too much time dwelling on the symptoms of our nation’s cancer. I may mention the symptoms but only to point to the reality of the living God who dwells above. He’s the one I put my hope in. He’s the only one who can give me clarity, and he’s the only one who can give America clarity too.