What are we doing?

Sep 22, 2025

My wife, Leslie, and I just finished a special anniversary trip to an ancient land that has always fascinated me. It has the earliest recorded example of democracy, one that was hewn out of the wars between great cities as they battled over women and country. Many of the stories of conquest are lore. Battles that happened so long ago usually are, and the victors write the surviving historical record with deference to their heroes and the castigation of their enemies as villains. It may not be accurate that way, but at least the stories of their bravery can become the framework from which to forge a society.

A battle for democracy is currently unfolding in the United States, one that is also being written by the ‘victors,’ reminiscent of the great battles fought in previous generations that defined cities and nations. The truth that describes these battles is difficult to grasp as it seems malleable and elusive. The same event has seemingly multiple ‘truths,’ twisted and manipulated to conform to an intended narrative that fits the conveyor’s projected audience. Everyone is a victim in this process. There are no winners, only survivors.

Truth should not be so elusive. Pilate asked, ‘What is truth?’ when the Truth was standing before him in bonds that could not possibly hold him. Jesus submitted to Pilate’s question and his captivity willingly. This Truth was not cruel or capricious, but instead served to the end. Love is his framework, inaugurating a world that became lost and enslaved by the great lie upon which we have built our stories ever since. He is the ultimate ‘Victor’ and the Author and Creator of the true story of our world. When we veer from that Truth, the various truths we create serve as a tool to manipulate and sway, seeking to build a following or polarizing force or a system of power. If you control the narrative, whether ‘true truth’ or not, you can create a reality that can be twisted to achieve certain ends. It becomes a weapon of destruction, serving as a force that alienates and destroys. Actual truth is expendable, as are those who get caught in the undertow of the lie.

Where we find ourselves in the current political climate is precarious. Instead of the horrible assassination of Charlie Kirk uniting us as a Nation against the violence of the moment, it seems to now be a tool to make the divide even greater. How can this be? How can we find the wedge between us grow in the death of a young man cut down in the prime of his life with a wife and young family?

How we understand and apply truth has changed. In 2004, a senior advisor to President George W. Bush told journalist Ron Suskind that people like him—Suskind—lived in “the reality-based community”: they believed people could find solutions based on their observations and careful study of discernible reality. But, the aide continued, such a worldview was obsolete.

“That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” the aide said. “We are an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”[1]

That’s why all of this is extremely precarious. Once you have untethered the political narrative—or any narrative--from reality, you are at the mercy of anyone who can ‘create reality,’ history’s actors, so to speak. Normally, they are the powerful, the victors. We are back in ancient Greece.

Maybe we prefer it this way. Does anyone care about the truth?

Historian Heather Cox Richardson recalls a classic case of dividing the world into friends and enemies—a tactic suggested by Nazi political theorist Carl Schmitt—that incites violence against newly identified enemies by claiming it is imperative to preempt them from using violence against your friends, by using violence first.[2]

Sadly, this seems to be a tactic that suits Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller as he labels those with whom he disagrees. “Miller has vowed to use the power of the government... against MAGA’s political enemies. Flipping victims and offenders, he called his political opponents “domestic terrorists” and warned: “[T]he power of law enforcement under President Trump's leadership will be used to find you, will be used to take away your money, take away your power, and, if you've broken the law, to take away your freedom.”

His social media posts contained the following: “There is an ideology that has steadily been growing in this country which hates everything that is good, righteous, and beautiful and celebrates everything that is warped, twisted, and depraved. It is an ideology at war with family and nature. It is envious, malicious, and soulless. It is an ideology that looks upon the perfect family with bitter rage while embracing the serial criminal with tender warmth. Its adherents organize constantly to tear down and destroy every mark of grace and beauty while lifting up everything monstrous and foul. It is an ideology that leads, always, inevitably and willfully, to violence—violence against those [who] uphold order, who uphold faith, who uphold family, who uphold all that is noble and virtuous in this world. It is an ideology whose one unifying thread is the insatiable thirst for destruction.”[3]

This statement is not normal political rhetoric, but is instead a redefinition and manipulation of truth for a gullible audience. It should deeply disturb all of us, especially coming from someone so highly placed within the Trump Administration. And there don’t seem to be any voices within the Administration that believe this is a problem.

Where that kind of rhetoric ultimately leads is shown on the Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends, last week, when host Brian Kilmeade suggested the way to address homelessness was through “involuntary lethal injection. Or something. Just kill them.” When asked, “Why did we have to get to this point?” he answered, “We’re not voting for the right people.”

Of course, that is not the truth. Inflammatory rhetoric such as that espoused by the White House Deputy Chief of Staff and Brian Kilmeade should be called out, not just by Democrats, but by every American. Violent rhetoric feeds violent actions. By painting each other as monsters, we can guarantee that it will feed into a national consciousness that seeds further violence. By creating ‘the other’ and declaring them as ‘out to get you’ and planning to destroy everything you care about, you have effectively set up the platform for the continued rhetoric of violence and hate. We see it play out across society as ‘the other’ are picked up off the streets by masked ICE agents using tactics intended to create fear and panic, while those brutal tactics are accepted by many in society since they are ‘the other’ and not ‘us.’

What’s the way forward? Well, we don’t have to continue this vicious cycle. Followers of Jesus know this is not the behavior of his disciples. Jesus tells us to do what God does:

Matthew 5:43–45 (ESV)

⁴³ “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”

The Church needs to be the Church, not a political voting bloc for either party. We have to lead this by example, or we need to question whether we are really following Jesus.

Theologians Willimon and Hauerwas paint the challenge in their book ‘Resident Aliens: A provocative assessment of culture and ministry for people who know that something is wrong’ (Amazing title!).

Christianity is more than a matter of a new understanding. Christianity is an invitation to be part of an alien people who make a difference because they see something that cannot otherwise be seen without Christ. Right living is more the challenge than right thinking. The challenge is not the intellectual one but the political one—the creation of a people who have aligned themselves with the seismic shift that has occurred in the world since Christ.[4]

So what do we do? Are we willing to seek a way forward through the challenge before us?

I am planning to host a discussion sometime in the next few weeks in an attempt to create a space to gather, to pray and to listen to each other. I am located in NYC, but can create a platform to gather as many as are interested, both in person and online, to seek a way forward as followers of Jesus. We owe it to our children—and our Savior—to try.

Send me your email and I will try to put something together.

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