Has “lack-of-patriotism” become a “badge of courage”?

Here’s my informed opinion: you’re one of my friends who is not looking for something else to do. Your plate is full, and the requests for your time are backed up like planes waiting to land at O’Hare. Despite the jammed portfolio of mission-critical assignments into which you must devote significant attention, your participation and patriotism been demanded in a process that will require you to weigh-in on a historic decision, 19 months from now.

You’ve been named to be on the selection committee to decide the person who will be elevated to the CEO role that has been called the Most Powerful Position in the World. The men and women who have been self-nominated as contenders for President are already in circulation, hoping to create a dedicated army of voters who will make their aspiration their realization. You may still be dealing with campaign fatigue from the recent mid-terms, but the ramp-up to Campaign 2020 has begun in earnest, and is forcing the consideration of candidates into fabricated urgency.

At least 14 hopefuls are hitting the highway (including the Incumbent President, but not the still-wavering former Vice President). Between writing this Point of View and the moment you opened it to read it, a few more may have been added to the upcoming debate stages. As is always, the race is on among contenders to stake-out their place on a political spectrum that stretches from “Conservative” on the right to “Progressive” on the left.

Each day brings more “say what???” reports from town halls and union rallies as the hope-to-be-President competitors submit their wish-list of bullet-points from the revolutionary handbook(s). Replace capitalism with socialism (the opening bid for 2020 to win the hand of history); redefine the Supreme Court with term limits while expanding the panel by 70% or more; eliminate the Electoral College; drop the voting age to 16; allow non-citizens to cast ballots; and, from among their friends currently serving in Congress… use Impeachment as a reaction to simmering political differences rather than the checks-and-balances answer to “high crimes and misdemeanors.” The cheers are mounting from people who didn’t listen in high school’s American History class – or, disagreed then and now with the conclusion that America’s unique identity is worthy of sacrificial devotion.

The only “win” at the end of the campaign: to be the one for whom the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court will administer the Oath of the President, in January 2021: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Fidelity to the Constitution for the President is not optional.

Years of time and millions of dollars promising to redraw the Founders’ blueprints that are embedded in the Constitution so that they could declare – before the nation, the world and the Creator – that they will “preserve, protect and defend” the very thing they’ve pledged to disrupt and dismiss. Is there any integrity dissonance there?

The same thing is happening today within the Christian movement. Has “lack-of-patriotism” become a “badge of courage”?

Denominational conventions are now erupting into conflicts between historic biblical standards and contemporary cultural aberrations. Leaders – and, congregations – that elect to adhere to God’s standards for life are now identified as purveyors of “hate speech,” and the modern progressive demand is to silence and demean people of faith for simply declaring the legitimacy of their God-given Truth.

Without the Constitution, America’s brand becomes an empty shell. Without the Scriptures, the Christian brand becomes an empty shell. True Leaders embrace the identity that flows from the tested-in-history documents written by their Founders, in both. Preserve, protect and defend is the Job Description of legitimate leaders; rebels set a course that leads to deconstruction, chaos and demise.

Who will prevail?

Bob Shank