My high school class of 1973 is having our 50th reunion this summer. I’ve been out of school four times as long as I was in school. As the current expression goes, that’s crazy!
A lot has changed. For me personally, I look different. Unlike the long hair draped over my collar, I’ve become follicly challenged and my scalp shows through. I’ve gained some extra poundage too. How much? Let’s just say my overall girth has morphed to XL in the last five decades.
Besides my appearance, our society has changed significantly in the last half century too. Today does not resemble my formative years in any way. Instead of living in harmony with each other, discord and dissidence abound everywhere.
Staying in step with societal norms has become very challenging; frankly, impossible. Due to social media and the cancel culture, we are expected to remain in agreement with whatever peculiarities a person decides to broadcast as their identity. (What? So, you’re a cat. Really?) The general public is expected to embrace whatsoever self-enamored eccentricities a person espouses.
If we don’t comply with societal expectations, we’re considered bigoted and out of touch. Thereafter we become subject to the bias and judgment of the better enlightened ones, and are ostracized from their network.
Freedom gone amuck.
Our Democratic Republic is frequently described as “an experiment.” Though we’ve existed as a nation for almost 250 years, and despite our renown as a world power, economic model, and pillar for freedom, I agree it has yet to prove itself sustainable. Let’s face it, the experiment could yet fail. Let me explain.
Our forefathers constructed our nation and the governance of it, in a manner to provide an unrivaled right to individual liberty. Everything from the Constitution itself, with the separation of powers in the three branches of government, to the Bill of Rights is predicated to assure our freedoms. Though the United States of America was not established as a Christian nation (sorry, I know some disagree), it was genuinely built on the premise of God’s existence, and as such His principles for morality served as a plumb line for truth.
I’m not saying everyone in the nation was a God-fearing, devout Believer, but God’s authority was generally accepted, respected, and served to establish societal order and decency. The laws enacted to monitor and manage our democracy existed in alignment with the Ten Commandments.
Here’s the point: as long as the existence of God was understood, and our citizenry upheld the hope for compliance with His ways, mankind’s propensity to sin was held in tension with a generally understood reverence for God. Does this make sense?
But now it’s trendy to express whatever whim I choose, without merit given to a Godly sense of what’s right. And without a compass pointing us towards truth, our freedom in self-expression collide in disrespect, and often violence.
It’s like constructing a house without a plumb line, and wondering why the building is out of kilter.
Our nation is aptly described as a “post-Christian nation.” There is no commonly held standard any longer, and without a standard there is no truth. And with no truth, there is no certainty. Is there any wonder that mental illness, addiction, and suicide has proliferated? With our nation removing reverence for God as its foundational core value, so the social expectation for respect, grace, and mercy has gone astray also.
So, what’s the answer? We can’t just return to our better, safer, more contented time several generations ago. Mayberry only exists in black and white on the TV Land channel now. No, we can’t turn the clock back. But we can repent.
Repent? Really?
Repentance is not a term heard commonly outside of church services, but it’s a good word. Repent means to turn around; to change your mind; to make a U-turn. Repentance is the acknowledgment of error, and turning away from it.
Am I saying the whole nation should confess its sins, ask for forgiveness, and head back to Mayberry? Not at all. Our nation’s repentance can only happen one person at a time. It is as God brings conviction to our hearts, and we adopt humility sufficient to listen and respond, that we can change. And if millions and millions of our citizens respond in repentance, our nation will begin to turn also; slow but sure, America returning to God.
That’s what we need to pray for.
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14)
Dave Hinman
Pastor Emeritus, Dove Church Wilmington
