As I describe in my book, Not Just Any Old God Will Do, the inspiration to write it came to me through a series of repetitive dreams regarding my inability to find my way back home to my family. When the book was published in the latter portion of 2020, I assumed that I had fulfilled my commitment to the inspiration I felt. Subsequently, however, I began dreaming all over again; and upon reflection on those recurring dreams which had a slightly different twist than my original dreams, I realized my work was not yet complete.
As I drafted my book, one of my increasingly deep concerns was that the former president’s authoritarian conduct would lead to the destruction of democracy in America. While some of my readers may have thought my concern was hyperbolic at the time, in light of the events that have occurred since then, it now seems prescient. The hearings resulting from the January 6th insurrection have revealed just how close we were to a constitutional crisis in this country because of the sinister schemes of the former president and his allies.
The overarching theme of Not Just Any Old God Will Do is that throughout the history of the world, the enemy of our souls has weaponized the perception of humans against them. From the time he persuaded Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden by appealing to her desire for wisdom, he has sought to influence our thoughts and actions by coloring our perception of the world around us. You see, he understands that in a very real sense, one’s perception of reality is more important than reality itself. For instance, a racist’s perception of the people of a particular race is a greater determinant of how he treats them than the reality that those people are his equal.
Through my blogs, I will continue to pursue the objective of my book by correlating select current events in the United States with the enemy’s efforts to control the thoughts and actions of many Americans by influencing their perception. The focal point of most articles will likely involve national politics because this is the means through which the enemy is attempting to destroy our country as a powerfully positive influence in this world. Since its founding, America, despite her shortcomings, has been a major force for good. Over the years, she has been a formidable counterbalance to brutal authoritarian regimes in various parts of the world.
What would our world be like without a truly democratic United States? This is a question every American should ponder as we are confronted with the existential threats the enemy of our souls is mustering against our country. But I suspect many will not consider this question inasmuch as they lack the proper grasp of the gravity of recent events in this country simply because the enemy has distorted their perception in a manner that causes them to dismiss the unacceptable actions of politicians as “politics as usual”, no matter how detrimental to our democracy the actions may be.
In his farewell address to the nation, President Ronald Reagan referred to America as “the shining city upon a hill”. I suspect the enemy of our souls has gone to great length to extinguish the “light” emitted by this city since by doing so, his influence will be more prominent, not just in this country, but all over the world. My sincere hope is that my blogs will, at a minimum, inspire Christians on both sides of the political aisle to pray for the courage to challenge their respective beliefs in a manner that would enable them to weed out those (sometimes long-standing) beliefs that are based on misperceptions of themselves, of others, or of God. The survival of democracy in our country may very well depend upon it.
One interesting phenomenon highlighted in my book was many evangelical Christians’ unwavering support for the former president of the United States. I attributed the misguided loyalty for this president to the enemy’s efforts to distort the perception of some evangelicals in a way that allowed them to believe that the accession of this man to the presidency of the United States was God’s perfect will instead of merely his permissive will. Despite his deplorable conduct and the shame that he brought to our country, they have remained steadfastly in his corner.
I realize that my attribution of evangelical Christians’ support for the former president and his acolytes to the enemy’s influence on their perception will likely infuriate some of them with me because many Christians tend to believe that “real” Christians are above the enemy’s influence since we belong to God. This perception is dangerous on its face inasmuch as it leads to a self-righteousness akin to that reflected in the lives of the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. But please let me be clear. By no stretch of the imagination am I questioning other Christians’ relationship with God. I struggle too much with my own relationship with him to question the relationship of others. However, we must be disabused of the notion that God’s people are inherently immune to the enemy’s schemes. There is no Biblical basis for this stance. If we were immune to his deception, there would be no need for Peter’s advice as provided in 1 Peter 5:8: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:”.
We should know that a Christian’s walk in this life is a day-by-day fight to keep the enemy at bay because “this world is not our home”. Anyone is capable of being deceived by the enemy of our souls. Even Jesus, the Son of God, had to resist the enemy’s efforts to influence his perception while in the wilderness. Let me illustrate my point by relating a personal anecdote that provides a relatively simple example of how the enemy can use the perception of people on both sides of an issue to alienate us from one another. In my book, I write about my predisposition to prejudge white people who called me “Buddy”. Regardless of their intent, to me, it was similar to them calling me “Boy”. Therefore, if left unchecked, my misperception of them would have likely led to my mistreatment of them which could have caused reciprocal behavior in them that would have reinforced my preconceived notion that they were racists. Had that happened, the enemy would have successfully ruined my relationship with potentially good people without my recognition that I was primarily culpable. You see, while I was playing checkers, the enemy of our souls was playing chess. Ultimately, God helped me to see that my misperception of those who referred to me as “Buddy” was my problem, not theirs. And I thank him for this stark revelation inasmuch as had he not opened my eyes regarding this matter, I would likely still be alienating potentially good people under the pretext that they were condescending racists who deserved my ire.
In reviewing my blogs, it is not lost on me that some of my readers may conclude that I give the enemy too much credit because he is ultimately no match for our God. As a prebuttal to that conclusion, let me definitively assert that I agree the enemy is no match for God. But I have come to realize that outside of God’s protection, we are no match for the enemy either; and God’s protection is predicated on our obedience. Many Biblical examples demonstrate that when God’s people insisted on resisting his guidance, they did so at their own peril. Similarly, when we allow the voices of others to cause us to ignore God’s still small voice within us, we do so at our own peril. In the case of ancient Israel, the enemy influenced the perception of the people in a manner that resulted in their theocracy being replaced with a monarchy. And it is my belief that the enemy is currently trying to replace our democracy with authoritarianism. The people of Israel may have thought that the change in Israel’s government was no big deal and would likely be seamless. The leadership of one man (God’s man) would merely be replaced by that of another (their king). Any argument against the change was merely a distinction without a difference. But in reality, this change was monumental and led to considerable suffering for the nation. And if the enemy is successful in his efforts to replace our democracy with authoritarianism, contrary to the perception he would like to foster in Christians, religious freedom will no longer be a given as it has been from the founding of our country.
Finally, for those who would dismiss my book and my blogs as highly biased writings of a partisan who has great disdain for people on the Right as demonstrated by the fact that my writings do not address the evils of the Left, I say you could not be more wrong in your assessment. Contrary to what the enemy would likely have my readers believe, the purpose of my blogs is not to praise the Left and excoriate the Right. In fact, I lean toward being a small c conservative myself. But the anti-democratic actions and rhetoric spewed by some leaders on the Right are not at all consistent with conservative values. That is why one of the objectives of my writing in this space is to disabuse well-intentioned, but deceived, conservatives of the notion that election deniers and insurrectionists have our country’s best interest at heart.
I whole-heartedly acknowledge that the enemy’s influence can be seen on the Left as well as the Right. But any effort on my part, or anyone’s part for that matter, to offer a balanced view of culpability with respect to the threat to our democracy would only further enable the enemy inasmuch as one of the tactics he employs to normalize the absurd is the propagation of false equivalencies. For instance, he has fostered the perception that the authoritarian threat posed by those who seek to undermine our democracy by denying the results of the 2020 presidential election is no different than the socialism threat posed by those who advocate for more social programs. Also, he would have Americans believe the former president’s removal of numerous highly classified documents to his home at the end of his presidency and refusing to return them was no different than the former secretary of state’s use of a private email server for official public communications. Therefore, I cannot in good conscience create a reporting balance when facts do not support that. I am often dismayed by much of what I see as the manifestation of the enemy’s influence with respect to some on the Left. In fact, I suspect that much of the support for ill-intentioned leaders on the Right emanate either directly or indirectly from the legal overreach regarding social issues of some leaders on the Left. But policies like the one advocated by some on the Left that would allow a male to compete in female sports by changing his gender are not a threat to our democracy. I am sometimes irritated by the hypocritical political correctness on the Left but it is not a threat to our democracy.
But all Americans should be grieved by the fact that while the enemy is distorting the perception of many voters, many of whom are well intentioned, in an effort to elect some candidates who have an authoritarian mindset, he has also begun to exploit the perception of state legislators in key states in order to effect changes to their state’s election infrastructure that could remove the legal guardrails that prevented a Constitutional crisis after the 2020 presidential election. The question is, “Will we the people stand by and allow our democracy to be taken from us?”. As I write in this space, my sincere hope is that patriotic Americans on both the Left and the Right will unite long enough to quash this threat orchestrated by the enemy of our souls. As you peruse the information I present, I encourage you to avoid dismissing it for any reason without allowing God’s still small voice to weigh in with respect to its veracity.