How To Destroy Both Country and Church
By J.R. Ensey
At first glance, there might not seem to be a connection between the two entities. Our country is not our church and our church is not our country. We keep them separate so far as authority and control are concerned. However, my point is that the same methods being used to destroy our country can be used to destroy our church. Since second century history proves that the church can be decimated and driven underground, we would be wise to make sure that history does not repeat itself in twenty-first century America.
In 2005 former Colorado Governor Richard Lamm gave a brief speech at a conference in Washington, DC on the topic of immigration. He called the brief three and a half minute speech, “My Plan To Destroy America.” What we are seeing develop in America today suggests that someone read the speech and made it their agenda. Lamm submitted eight points as his “destroy America” plan (only slightly edited here):
1) Make America into a multi-lingual, bi-cultural nation. It is a curse for a society to be bi-lingual. Observe the tension, conflict, and antagonism of competing languages and cultures.
2) Promote multiculturalism, encouraging immigrants to maintain their own culture.
3) Celebrate diversity rather than unity. Encourage immigrants to keep their own language and culture. Replace the “melting pot” metaphor with a “salad bowl” metaphor, reinforcing differences rather than similarities.
4) Make our fastest growing demographic group the least educated. Cut them some slack. See that the group has a 50% drop out rate from school.
5) Encourage big corporations and foundations to fund these efforts. Invest in ethnic identity, and establish the cult of victimology. Point to the majority as the cause for minorities’ lack of success. Start a grievance industry.
6) Push dual citizenship and promote divided loyalties. Stress differences. Differences develop hate, and hate degenerates. Balkanize America by stressing the “pluribus” in our motto rather than the “unum.”
7) Place all subjects off limits. Make it taboo to speak against these efforts. Shame those who disagree and label them with epithets like “racists” or “xenophobes.” Develop a mantra like “Immigration has been good for America; therefore, it will always be good.” Make it virtually impossible to enforce current immigration laws.
8) I would censor Victor Davis Hanson’s book Mexifornia. This book is dangerous. This guy is on to my plan to destroy America. As Norm Chomsky once said, “The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum.”
Governor, you have outlined a sure-fire plan to bring America to the level of Kosovo, a divided Balkan state that seems to always be in a social upheaval. America seems to be on a fast track to becoming another Kosovo.
We mourn for America, as the Bible prophesied: “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn” (Proverbs 29:2), but can the church, the body of Christ, be affected by a similar disease?
Are we not promoting some of the same concepts? Do we not hail diversity and celebrate differences rather than unity? Have we not abandoned the spiritual “E pluribus unum” view and embraced the more popular and politically correct notion of “tolerance”? The “big tent” hypothesis is attractive to those who are into numbers and appearances rather than doctrinal and spiritual unity.
To be diverse as to skin color or ethnicity is a good thing. The church must never draw lines against those elements when it comes to evangelism and inclusion. Then when they come into the church, those differences should be transcended and the melting pot metaphor applied. That means believing the same thing, living by the same principles, and sharing the same vision. The same doctrines should be espoused and the same standards of holiness adopted.
The ministerial body should example this concept. Paul instructed the Corinthian church in this way: “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment” (I Corinthians 1:10). Why isn’t that same admonition appropriate today?
In a pluralistic culture, all viewpoints are given the same weight and space. There are no absolute truths. Each cultural segment is allowed its own beliefs and ethics. Is that the church of our vision? The church of the future where our children and grandchildren will attend? Where there are no lines, no judgment, only relativism? Jesus prayed for the oneness and unity of the church in John 17:22, not a Jewish church and a Gentile church (Galatians 3:28). Paul took substantial space in the Bible to promote a Christian togetherness, creating a single face for the church to present to the world.
The more diversity and multiculturalism there is in America—the mantra of those wishing ill for America—the weaker will be our national unity. United we stand; divided we fall. In the same way, when there are differences among us when it comes to doctrine and lifestyles, the body of Christ is weakened. The time has come when a pastor who has a family moving to a distant city is put into a quandary—will there be a church near them that maintains the same belief system and standards? Time was when a family moved, all a pastor had to do was look in the Ministerial and Church Directory. If there was a listed church near them—Eureka! One cannot be so naïve today.
Let’s pray for a positive answer to the prayer of Paul—that we become more alike than increasingly diverse. The same thing that decimated the early church—accommodation to an unbelieving culture in order to gain recognition and acceptance—can also decimate the endtime church. It must not happen!
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