A Lament For America
By: Slow to Write Topic: PoliticsConservatives have always said American policy is ten years behind Canadian policy. When the Supreme Court of the United States legalized gay “marriage” in 2015, they were following the progressive policies of the Canadian government when they legalized gay marriage through a bill called the Civil Rights Act in 2005.
A lot has changed since then. The gap between America and Canada is narrowing. American policy is still superior to Canadian policy. But in some ways, America has become even worse than Canada.
Yesterday, for the first time in its history, America convicted a former president and a major-party presidential nominee of a crime. A New York jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business records to aid his 2016 election.
As the Daily Wire said, “Prosecutors accused Trump of improperly masking reimbursements to repay his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, for a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence on an alleged extramarital affair by classifying them as legal expenses.”
The trial was presided over by an activist judge who donated to Joe Biden and the Democrats in the 2020 election. The unjust verdict is political persecution encouraged and approved by Joe Biden.
It’s shocking to consider that despite all of his authoritarian ambitions and unjust character, Justin Trudeau hasn’t persecuted his political rivals—unlike Joe Biden.
Under Trudeau’s leadership, Canada has persecuted powerless, average citizens. But as the former president, Trump was the most powerful person in the world just four years ago—and as the current Republican nominee, he’s probably the second most powerful person in America today.
So since Biden and the Democrats are persecuting Trump, why wouldn’t they persecute average Republican voters?
They are already doing that. Last year a Trump supporter was convicted and sentenced to seven months in prison for memes he made during the 2016 election. And especially, the Biden administration has convicted many pro-life advocates for protesting abortion—including a group of pro-life advocates who were recently sentenced to several years of prison under the FACE Act.
Joe Biden and the Democrats say Donald Trump is a threat to democracy. But if Trump is a threat to democracy, it’s because he’s compelled Democrats and leftists to unmask themselves. Democrats are a threat to democracy, not Trump.
When Canada arrested and jailed pastors like James Coates and Tim Stephens during the COVID lockdowns, Christians in America were shocked by Canada’s unprecedented actions.
But I think the guilty verdict against Trump is even more shocking. To be clear, it’s significantly more unjust to persecute righteous pastors than unrighteous politicians. When a government persecutes Christians, they are persecuting Christ. When they persecute shepherds of a local church, they are persecuting the Good Shepherd.
It’s important to remember the distinction. Some Trump supporters are comparing his political persecution to Jesus and the Apostles’ persecution. It’s ridiculous that it needs to be said, but the crucial difference is that unlike Jesus and the Apostles, Trump isn’t being unjustly persecuted because of righteousness. He’s being unjustly persecuted because of his sin.
However, if America is now willing to unjustly convict former presidents, why wouldn’t they unjustly convict pastors?
If Lady Justice no longer wears a blindfold when Republican presidents are unjustly charged with a crime, then why would she wear a blindfold when righteous pastors are unjustly charged with a crime?
After the verdict, Russell Moore—the editor-in-chief of Christianity Today and the former president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s ERLC—said:
“The question is what it has always been- fit or unfit. And the answer was obvious all along. Character matters, still.”
I agree Donald Trump is unfit to be the president of the United States. What “evangelicals” like Russell Moore refuse to acknowledge, however, is that Joe Biden is more unfit to be president than Donald Trump.
But more important than that, though Donald Trump’s character makes him unfit for the presidency, it doesn’t mean he’s fit for prison.
I think people like Russell Moore know that. However, just as he approves articles promoting progressive “Christianity” for Christianity Today, he approves people who practice partiality and injustice.
So when many leaders in the Church no longer maintain a Biblical view of justice, we shouldn’t expect leaders over the justice system to maintain it either. The Church in America has dimmed its light, so America is no longer a beacon of justice.
This echoes what Alexis de Tocqueville once said about America. He said:
“I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers—and it was not there. . . . . in her fertile fields and boundless forests—and it was not there. . . . .in her rich mines and her vast world commerce—and it was not there. . . . in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution—and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.”
This article is a lament for America, but more than that, it’s a lament for the Church in America.
Some people on the Right say the Constitution is dead. They say unless conservatives terminate it, the Left will continue to persecute people. But as Tocqueville said, what has primarily sustained America since its founding isn’t the Constitution—it’s churches.
So it doesn’t matter what people do to the constitution if local churches remain Biblically inept and spiritually weak. Without a revival in local churches, there won’t be nationwide reform.
But so long as there is a remnant of faithful Christians in the country, America is terminally ill—not dead.