The State

America and the Levites Concubine

Rev. Steve Schlissel - December 18, 2018

Not too many years ago, my public lectures and sermons were, in many instances, delivered to audiences almost wholly Dutch Reformed in background. My own bevy of blossoming brunette daughters found themselves seated in many a garden where their rich dark tresses were magnets drawing the eyes of yellow-crowned goddesses filling pew after pew. As with spiritual gifts, value must be measured by how well a recipient pleases the giver, not by how intensely the gifts He has chosen to give to others are coveted by the rest.

Essentially the same lesson may be taught using virtually every discernible category of providential differentiation experienced by man. We are taught today that the only correct way of dealing with group-to-group differences is to adamantly deny their existence—at least, in public. But man’s aversion to ludicrously phony constructions of reality seems to be a trait he carries with him everywhere and always. For however long he might be bribed to parrot the prescribed lies, a time must come when those who abused their power to impose falsehoods will be forced to pay a steep price. If not here, then when standing before the “Giver of every perfect gift.” But the gleg observer need not wait for such a day to see how the current approved narrative is tissue deep and mendacious altogether. Not a single narrator believes it himself.

I think of the Far Side cartoon where a cow is shown, disgustedly spitting something from his mouth while standing up, fore-hoofs out, shouting to all his fellow bovines, “Hey! This is GRASS we’ve been eating!!” Once word gets out, a Who song will be played on every radio, “We Won’t Be Fooled Again.”
Sure you will. It is as inevitable as was your awakening from your night of willing submission to that most recent deception. As long as empowered sinners can find quick profit in selling bridges they hold no title to, there will be forgers and counterfeiters supplying them with the required “proof.” Perhaps our expectations would suffer less trauma if they were modified to “won’t be fooled by that same lie again.” You know, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice…”

A difference in our current climate, however, is Shakespearean in degree, for it pertains to the heights from which we are forced to watch America fall. Never has a nation attained unto the degree of liberty, goodness, opportunity, compassion, responsibility, prosperity, high principle and love, including love of Truth, as our nation has. The light the Pilgrims lit for America has not burned under a bushel, but has witnessed America becoming and remaining the Desire of all the world, just like America’s Messiah, Jesus. But that is truth no longer tolerated. Taste its fruits, but don’t acknowledge the roots.

The Bard understood that real tragedy can only be predicated of those “at the top,” since tragedy is not discover-able in a slip, or even a loss of balance. No, the requirements of Avon can only be met in a story ending in a bottom which began at a top, at a great height. The force is found in those falls where per second/per second speed acceleration is a pertinent measure. But our fall, America’s fall, has already past points of possible recovery. No matter what stopgap is proposed, careful consideration will disclose it to be out of reach, behind us.

Consider, for example, the wholesale acceptance of the lie that America’s past has so infused guilt upon any and all with any connection to Founders, that no atonement should be sought or spoken of—only punishment, retribution and plundering. Go read a survey. We are entering the third generation with NO KNOWLEDGE of our history. And folks abound who suspect or believe or are convinced that America’s past makes her unworthy to fight for her future—regardless of her unmatched record of repentance and reform.

Having decreed her “worthless,” she’s been leased or turned over to any customer willing to pay the hourly rate for hookers with her pedigree. Bearing no love for her, not a modicum of loyalty or devotion, America has been charted for an end like the Levite’s concubine in the time of Judges. She’ll be raped to death. Then her remaining parts, emptied of life, will be cut up and sent to the heirs, who will then suddenly be filled with a pathetically overdue and useless, remorseful indignation. Where were they when…? Those Johnny-come-lately mourners will all wail, “How could this have happened?,” even while they refuse to recognize how much of their monthly cable bill went to insuring the assault’s success, not to mention their children’s tuition bills.

No. Any fair survey will reveal that no outpost remains which can support feet which might be willing to heed a call. We have been trained for indulgence, not war. This is not the generation for a big turnout at gatherings calling for sacrificial giving of means, fortunes or reputations, in service to a hope which cannot even be publicly named.

For it is Christianity alone which under-girds, supports and enables our American legacy of liberty and wealth, not to mention the grit, durability and humility required to admit our errors and improve our ways. Confess Jesus Christ as Cornerstone today and lose your job tomorrow. And toward what end? The deck is rigged. The bravest only watch. The rest tweet.