Familia Americana: Supreme Authority: If God is Dead who is in charge?
What happens when that which is created masters the creator?
In the mid – to late 1800s, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche declared the Age of Enlightenment – with its emphasis on the scientific method and reductionism – as having rendered God and religion irrelevant; that the universe was governed by physical laws and not divine providence. In his book, The Gay Science, Nietzsche theorized that God was not needed as the source for morality, value, or order in the universe. Instead, philosophy and science (instruments of man) were capable of defining this for us.
The secularization of thought that started during the Scientific Revolution and continued into the Enlightenment gave way to new ideologies that were driven by human nature rather than directed by divine inspiration or faith in God. They result was a series of movements and schools of thought that pretended to correct the injustices suffered by the people at the hands of their governors, but instead, removed the source of authority from a benevolent higher power, our Creator, and placed that power in the hands of the compromised.
The arrogance of looking inward – to human nature – for righteousness and truth, instead of recognizing truth as it is, always has been, and always will be, is dishonest at a minimum and wicked at best. The Enlightenment and its secularization of thought left society devoid of meaning, clarity, and freedom from the authority that human beings levy over others. It granted the created superiority over its creator, our Creator.
You may have heard of some of these modern movements: fascism/Nazism, communism/Marxism, socialism/democratic socialism, anarchy, and variations of these. They profess to bring in a new period of change for the people – who have suffered injustices at the hands of their oppressors. They may differ in the execution of the restitutions they seek, as history has shown us. In the end, these movements transfer authority, power, and control from the existing class of governors to a new class of governors; governors who then hold authority, power, and control over the people. Excluded from society is the very anchor that humankind needs, in order to navigate the turbulent seas: the Creator.
Pride and power are dangerous to our human nature. Pride is blinding. It can deceive one into believing their actions are virtuous just as easily as it can corrupt the soul and sever the spirit from God. Power is treacherous. It can facilitate change and amplify actions (and their consequences) just as easily as it can dominate and exploit. Pride and power are difficult to contain and difficult to surrender.
There is no greater conflict than that between the forces of good and evil. Determining the source of our authority is fundamental to our physical survival on earth, our eternal salvation after death, and influences how we navigate this struggle. Therefore, I ask whose authority is supreme?
In Central America, Nicaraguan President and dictator Daniel Ortega (a Marxist who has held the presidency for nearly 20 years, though not concurrently) has declared war on God. Ortega has long-labeled the Church as being committed to organizing “coups” against the regime and accuses the Church of disturbing the peace, destabilizing the State, inciting violence, and so on. It’s safe to say that Ortega’s source of authority is [clearly] not the divine.
On August 1, 2022, Nicaraguan police broke into Divine Mercy parish in the province of Matagalpa and shut down the Catholic radio station they operated and used to broadcast the Mass to the people. Seven other Catholic radio stations were closed that day and their churches and chapels vandalized.
Ortega has accused the Catholic Church of using communications media and social media to carry out their acts of hatred against the regime and the people. To date, the Nicaraguan government has persecuted bishops, priests, seminarians, nuns, missionaries, and anyone who has a direct or indirect relationship with the Catholic Church. Some are jailed, others are under house arrest (guarded), and a few, like Monsignor Silvio Baez, fled the country after being beaten, stabbed, and threatened repeatedly.
In Nicaragua, religious liberty is not allowed, belief in God is a crime, and freedom of expression is a threat to authority. How are we faring in the United States?
In January of 2021 and on the heels of his presidential inauguration, Joe Biden commissioned his national security team to conduct a comprehensive review of domestic terrorism in the United States. More specifically, America needed to understand the magnitude of the White Supremacy problem that was so pervasive in the country; and Americans needed an enemies list.
On June 15th, 2021, the White House released the first ever National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism report. The 32-page report reads like a manifesto against White Christian males in America and demonizes dissenters who hold strong personal beliefs that do not perfectly align with the agenda of the administration. White Americans who are legitimately concerned about the ‘size and scope’ of government control and overreach, are profiled as possible perpetrators of domestic terrorism. The report is a lazy attempt to hide the true target of this administration – Christianity, the Christian right, and Christian denominations whose biblical beliefs do not yield voters for the left. But for the sake of appearing fair in its investigation, Biden’s National Security Council dishonestly generalized the beliefs and attitudes of those they considered the “root” of domestic terrorists, to include anyone who belongs to, identifies with, or is believed to be of the white race, a Christian, male, with specific points of view, and a few ‘extras’ for good measure.
Let’s put this in perspective: 1) according to the United States Census Bureau’s 2020 decennial report, the U.S. population is 59.3% (196M) White that are not Hispanic or Latino, and 75.8% White (251M) if the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity is included. 2) According to the Public Religion Research Institute’s (PRRI) The American Religious Landscape in 2020 report, seven in ten Americans (70%) identify as Christian, including more than four in ten (40%) who identify as White Christian.
Most recently, on August 12th, 2022, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a federal subpoena to the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) executive committee, effectively informing them of an investigation into its 13.7 million-member church and multiple SBC entities, over the mishandling of decades-long sexual abuse charges. This, after the church conducted comprehensive internal investigations, instituted strict reforms, cooperated with authorities, and continues to address these problems today. (No degree of sexual abuse is acceptable or should be tolerated in society. Irrespective of age, relationship, gender, etc., sexual abuse is reprehensible and deserving of the severest consequences.)
It is pretty brazen for the federal government to target millions of Americans based on race and religion, and use the pretext that these are necessary measures to counter extremism and extreme beliefs. What this really is, is a power grab by the government to further expand into American society. The goal is to render the governor superior to the governed (We the People) and eliminate the influence of and belief in our Creator, the divine authority.
In America, Christianity is a threat, white Christians are a threat, white Christian males are a threat, belief in God is a crime (pre-crime), and freedom of expression is a danger to authority.
Midterm elections are coming. The left leans closer and closer to Marxism, where there is no room for an authority greater than government. This is the root of the campaign against the largest religion in the country and its believers. The church stands in the way by preaching morality, value (equality, not equity), and a universal order in the eyes of God.
