The chapter titled “The World Is Upside Down” in my book, Not Just Any Old God Will Do, delineates how the enemy of our souls orchestrated the transformation of ancient Israel from a theocracy to a monarchy. To accomplish this, he implemented a step-by-step scheme to gradually strangle Israel’s relationship with God and destroy their trust in him. This chapter also outlines how the enemy has been hard at work, systematically trying to transform our country from a democracy to an autocracy by commandeering the perception of a large motley segment of its population. While this allegation might have struck some as hyperbolism at the time of the book’s release, the events at the Capitol of the United States of America on January 6 should leave no doubt that the current president is an authoritarian whose goal has been to undermine our democracy. Furthermore, these events further establish the fact that the perception of many Americans has been completely untethered from reality.
Before I move forward with an explanation of the major role of perception in current affairs, let me provide a factual backdrop that might help to facilitate my explanation:
1. More than 140 Congressmen and Congresswomen supported objections to certifying the electoral outcome in some states.
2. Some current members of Congress openly committed sedition by inciting their supporters to participate in the insurrection at the Capitol.
3. According to media reports, more than 70 percent of Republicans believe the 2020 presidential election was fraught with fraud.
4. Even after his obvious role in the failed coup attempt at the Capitol, Donald Trump is still the favorite to be the Republican nominee for the 2024 presidential election.
One of the themes of Not Just Any Old God will Do is that the enemy of our souls is capable of manipulating us in ways that cause us to become the antithesis of who we represent ourselves to be. Not only can he do this to an individual, he can also accomplish this with groups of people. The insurrection at the Capitol was a prime example of the enemy wreaking havoc against our country by exploiting people who perceived themselves to be “conservatives” and “patriots”.
In order to establish a clear dichotomy between their perception of themselves and their actions against this country, let’s define the words they use in describing themselves. A dictionary definition of conservative is, “A person who is averse to change and holds traditional values.” A patriot is defined as, “A person who loves his or her country and is ready to boldly support and defend it.”
Obviously, there is absolutely nothing conservative about what happened at the Capitol. People who would normally be averse to change and who would prefer maintaining the status quo, were attempting to overthrow our government. In effect, they, along with the members of Congress who opposed the certification of the Electoral College vote, were essentially seeking to replace our democracy with an autocracy. Does that sound like something a real conservative would desire? Clearly, it does not. However, the insurrectionists still consider themselves conservative because the enemy has commandeered their perception in a way that causes them to mis-define the status quo. Many of them believed that they were opposing change when in reality, had they succeeded, they would have been the agent of the greatest change in this country since the Civil War.
In my view, the word “patriot” may have become one of the most misused words in the dictionary and the misuse is not limited to only one side of the political aisle. It appears that many people have lost sight of the fact that patriotism is love of, and loyalty to, one’s country. A good example of this is when the congressman from Alabama incited his supporters to invade the Capitol and referred to them as patriots. While he may have believed his reference was apropos because of the enemy’s influence on his perception, his and his supporters’ actions were without doubt utterly antithetical to patriotism. In an essay, written in 1918, Theodore Roosevelt wrote, “Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President, or any other public official save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him in so far as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country.”
Using Mr. Roosevelt’s reckoning of what real patriotism is would unavoidably lead to the logical conclusion that the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol, notwithstanding their perception of themselves as patriots, were de factor traitors. Let me explain. I am not suggesting that these people wittingly sought to do harm to their country. To the contrary, they thought they were “saving” their country. By employing the President and many “conservative” leaders within the government and without, the enemy had promulgated the lie that the presidential election had been stolen and their duty to country required them to respond. For this lie to have any basis in fact, it would require a massive conspiracy involving several Republican secretaries of state, many judges, some of whom were appointed by the current president, and the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS). But that did not matter to these people. They dismissed the Republican secretaries of state as RINOs (Republicans In Name Only). They even accused a conservative leaning SCOTUS of ignoring evidence of widespread voter fraud by refusing to review it. At this point, their perception was no longer tethered to reality.
In the end, their loyalty to a corrupt leader had trumped (pun intended) their love for country. Their distorted perception had resulted in a malevolent worldview that gave rise to a perverted patriotism which caused immeasurable damage to our beloved country.