Understanding Our Times and the Future of America

MA in Faith, Culture and Public Policy

Dear VIU Friends,

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! There is no doubt our young democracy is undergoing a stress-test in 2020. The Bible also describes a time of great change and uncertainty in Israel, when King Saul had died and David ascends to the throne, the Chronicler aptly wrote,

Of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, 200 chiefs, and all their kinsmen under their command (1 Chronicles 12:32, ESV).

Just as in David’s day, there is a great benefit in “understanding the times” in order to “know what we ought to do”.  What is more, it’s shocking to read that only 200 individuals understood the times and knew what to do! If you’re as concerned as I am about the future of America and our religious freedoms, we can take solace in knowing that God is still on the throne and is ultimately sovereign over such matters (Daniel 2:20-21; Isaiah 46:10; Acts 17:26; Romans 13:1-8). On an earthly level, I can only hope America and the church have their eyes wide open and that there is more than just a few who understand what is at stake this election cycle.  As the presidential election approaches, our country hasn’t been this polarized since the time of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War in the 1860s. What’s more, there’s never been a more stark contrast between the agendas of the two candidates and their respective political parties. I believe this election could determine the fate of America for generations to come, effecting our cherished constitutional and God-given freedoms. These include the freedom of speech, the free exercise of religion, and the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness. We have become accustomed to our religious liberties, semi-friendly cultural and legal climate, our expression of conservative ideas on morality, the exercise of religion, the teaching of traditional family values, and the open conveyance of the gospel. However, there has been a radical move to the far left by many elected government officials, including city councils, mayors, district attorneys, governors, and congressional/senatorial officials, along with their constituents, who are now openly embracing socialism (Marxism). Many of which are highly supportive of the shift in educational curriculum indoctrinating elementary and high school students in a socialist revision of American history (e.g. The 1619 Project) and the family. This significant lurch to the left is accompanied by the stated desire to “re-write” traditional values and the meaning of the nuclear family, fostering a socialist “community family” in its place. This brazen move to the far left is extremely disturbing to say the least, and left unchecked by the American citizenry, will eventually affect religious rights, freedoms, and how the public (including school-aged children) understands the “family” unit. This leap to the socialist left by many is characterized by brazen anger, callousness, destruction, hate, bigotry, revolution, militancy, rejection of law and order, intimidation, cancel culture, and mob rule.

I am writing this letter to ask all people of faith, and appeal to your common sense, to please examine where we are headed as a nation, and by extension, as a church, and to consider how you might vote in light of these alarming developments. I am convinced that a strong shift toward the radical left could greatly weaken or even destroy America as we know it. You might say, “this is just hyperbole”, but please pause to reflect. As Christians, given the great commission to go into all the world, we are called to be salt and light to the world (Matthew 5:13-16), preserving and bringing illumination to our culture, and not to conform to it (Romans 12:2).

One doesn’t need to look far into the historical record to understand that far-left movements have consistently destroyed nations from within – much like the French Revolution. Disturbingly, some left extremists are now displaying model guillotines (originally devised to behead countless innocent citizens during the French Revolution’s reign of terror). This shows just how radical the left has become. The bloodbath of the French Revolution was followed by the bloodbath of the Russian Revolution and Stalin’s reign of terror, German socialist Nazi party and Hitler’s genocide and reign of terror, the Chinese Revolution and Mao’s reign of terror, and the Cambodia Revolution with Pol Pot’s reign of terror. Other left-wing revolutions that have totally oppressed their people include Cuba, (many Cuban immigrants have spoken out against the leftward shift taking place in Washington DC), Venezuela, etc. So, might the far-left destroy America? Absolutely!

This is an urgent warning for all reasonable people to hear. The far-left threatens the very foundations of our democracy, the family, and our ability to conduct Christian ministry (something the far-left despises as racist and privileged). The movement has put on a pretty face and is promoted by harmless appearing well-known ambassadors, but nonetheless, it is still evil. All these revolutions started with propaganda, vicious attacks, eliminating or defunding law enforcement, and promises of earthly utopia. They all ended in bloodshed, chaos, loss of freedom, loss of affluence, stifling of human innovation and creativity, profound human suffering, demeaned human dignity, and the absolute rule of the bureaucrats over the people. The contrast between conservative and far-left perspectives couldn’t be more fundamentally clear.

Conservative	Far-Left
America’s founding fathers respected	Founding fathers were racists, should be removed
Strengthen America and its values	Destroy America, its constitution, and racist past, then rebuild a new socialist nation
Rights and freedoms are inalienable and come from God and protected by government	Rights and freedoms come from government and can be changed by whoever holds power
Support and fund law enforcement	Defund and restrict law enforcement agencies
Foster traditional values	Traditional values are bigoted and outdated, need to create new values
Build the family unit	Destroy and/or disrupt the nuclear family, support community family
Equal opportunity for all	Demand equal outcome for all (distribution of wealth)
Foster innovation/entrepreneurship	Remove private ownership, state ownership favored
Democracy and free-market capitalism	Socialism and state-run centralized economy
Absolute Truth	Relative Truth
Absolute Morals, duty the means must justify themselves	Relative Morals, utilitarian ethic, ends justify the means
People are responsible for crimes committed	Guns, past oppression of the person blamed for crimes committed
Only male and female gender	Multiple genders based on personal preference
All persons are equal	Some persons should be preferred
LGBTQ should have common protections	LGBTQ should have special protections
Affirm traditional marriage and family	Silent or hostile regarding traditional marriage
Responsible environmental stewardship	Environment preferred over jobs and human needs
Unborn are fully human, deserve protection	Unborn have no human status, deserve no protection or due process under the law
Care for mothers, abolish or restrict abortion	Privacy for mothers, unrestricted abortion  before and after birth
Limited government	Big Government/Globalization
Lower Taxes	Increase Taxes (especially on the wealthy)
Restrain drugs, prostitution, crime, & violence	Legalize, promote drugs, or remain silent on prostitution, crime and violence
Freedom of speech and religious exercise	Limit and/or denigrate speech and religious exercise
Private and competitive health insurance	Receive guaranteed government income and mandated government-run health insurance
Christian worldview friendly	Hostile to Christian worldview
Interpret the Constitution as it was written	Interpret the Constitution as a “living” document
Free expression of ideas, violence unacceptable	Limited expression of ideas if consistent with far-left ideology, violence acceptable
Justice and fact-based education for all, in favor of giving parents school choice	Judicial and educational activism supporting far-left ideology (e.g. The 1619 Project), opposes giving parents school choice

There is a difference between being an alarmist and sounding the alarm. The former is an unjustified call to action for some intended gain, the latter is a justified call to awareness and action based on impending doom. The recent violence unfolding in American cities, the absence of objective journalism, the unwillingness of leftist elected officials to enforce the law, the entrenched antagonism towards the Christian worldview and conservative lawmakers, is only a glimpse of what far-left policy makers have in store for our country. Let us be reminded of Abraham Lincoln’s sobering 1838 speech at the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois, a paraphrase of the content is, “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we lose our freedoms it will be because we have destroyed ourselves from within.”

Please join me in fervently praying for our country and voting this fall according to biblical values.

VIU strongly affirms biblical values, religious liberty, good government, and laws that preserve an environment that is conducive to sharing the gospel, ministering to the lost, and educating Christian leaders.  Please pray and consider partnering with VIU as we consider creating a new graduate level degree program (Master of Arts in Faith, Culture and Public Policy) designed for those Christians called to winsomely engage our culture with a biblical worldview in the areas of law, culture, government, justice, ethics and public policy. I also invite you to consider praying and financially supporting VIU with your tax-deductible donation. No gift is too small!

In our Sovereign Lord,

Joseph M. Holden, PhD

President