“ONE NATION, UNDER GOD; INDIVISIBLE?”
Those are some of my favorite words from the pledge of allegiance to the
flag of the United States of America. Sadly, the concept of unity in our
nation, much less “under God,” are becoming more and more questionable.
What these words describe is growing dim these days. Here are a few
examples.
Disagreements about COVID–its origin, actual number of deaths directly
attributed thereto, to mask or not to mask, to reopen businesses or not, to
open schools or to educate virtually, to quarantine infected university
students in place or to send them home, how soon and how effective a
yet-to-be-perfected vaccine will be, etc. Our nation is not of one accord on
these vital COVID related issues that are tearing our nation apart.
The United States is racist, so it is being alleged. The generic assignment
of that term to an entire nation rather than only to those within that
nation who clearly deserve that adjective, the media fixation on white
police officers inappropriately and wrongly overreacting to black suspects
while virtually ignoring black-on-white and black-on-black violence, etc.
Our nation is not united on these important racial matters.
Violent protesting in major U.S. cities across the nation–its fundamental
cause, who is promoting and paying for it (paid protesters?!), how best to
stop it, who’s to blame for not ending it, sensitivity or lack thereof to
business owners whose lives and vocations are being shattered by flames and
broken glass and looting and destruction of their establishments, etc. Some
in our nation don’t seem to care. Our country is not united on this front.
“Professional” athletes’ behavior–the rightness or wrongness of NFL players
taking a sideline knee in protest during the national anthem, differing
attitudes toward NBA team members walking off the court and cancelling
playoffs in protest for racial justice, the role of team owners and league
officials in condoning or counteracting the behavior of their very highly
paid and in many respects profoundly pampered players, etc. Our nation is
not of one mind on these matters.
Abortion–the growing number of right-to-life proponents, the persistence of
abortion advocates, the astonishing approval of late term abortions by a
number of legislators across our land, the reticence of some Christians and
Christian groups to speak publicly in support of life and against pre-birth
cessation thereof, etc. Our nation manifests profound disagreement on this
important issue. For a long time we have not been united on pre-birth life
and rights.
“Under God” –those words sound good but are difficult to discern when
applied to the examples above. These words were not part of the original
pledge, they were added later. Now they are tolerated, ignored and even
despised by many, and there have been efforts to remove them. The
invocation of the name of God is a rarity in conversations about COVID and
racism and protesting, whether peacefully or violently. It has been asserted
by many learned authors and experts that we now live in a “Post-Christian”
era. Sadly, they seem to be right! “Unity” in this matter remains
unachieved, and “Under God” is not where we stand as a nation.
In times like these, I recall the words of Jesus in Matt. 12:25: “Every
kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided
against itself will stand.” The same is true of a nation.
Being more nearly of one mind on major issues, like those above and many
more, will need to occur for the words “One nation, under God, indivisible”
to be aptly and accurately descriptive of the U.S.A.
Lord, have mercy! And heal our land!
~ Pastor Dennis Krueger
p.s. You may not agree with what is written above, which is fine and
certainly your right. I do expect some static and dissatisfaction though,
which I believe will offer evidence of the division and disunity among us.