The events of January 6, in Washington DC, with the storming of the US Capitol, during the debate over certification of the Electoral College votes, stunned the nation and the world.

The nation’s capital city became a fortress for the inauguration of President Joe Biden, including aggressive fencing and other barriers and 25,000 National Guard troops.

The United States, leading nation of the free world, is descending into fear and chaos and appears to be approaching the brink of anarchy. Are the fencing and troops around the capitol simply precautions against disruption of the inauguration or will they become the new normal? Is our capital becoming like the Green Zone of the Iraqi capital in Baghdad?

Certainly what we are witnessing is political unrest. The nation is as divided as it has ever been, including the political climate at the time of the US Civil War. We see this as a conflict between political parties and policies, and on one level, it is. But the conflict is so much deeper than politics.

Politics, and economics and social institutions are all downstream from culture. And today, American culture is firmly in the grip of the Left, those elites who control the incubators of society, that is, the arts—music, theater, film, dance—and state-sponsored education. Writer Emily Jashinsky uses the “cultural Left” to capture this segment of our society.

This generation prides itself as being smart; our smart phones and “intelligent” computers can think for us. But smart is not wise! And today’s generation lacks wisdom.

Artists shape the culture

Cultural conservatives could learn from a Scottish statesman of earlier days, Andrew Fletcher, who said, “Let me make the songs of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws.” While the Right has focused on politics and the economy, the cultural Left has focused on that which is much more influential: the arts and state-sponsored education. It is the artists who shape culture, and culture will determine what laws are propagated by the political class.

What we are witnessing today is the outworking of the vision and hard work of the cultural Left to infiltrate the arts and education to shape the mindset of a generation of people who stand ready to radically change the United States and the world.

However, we need to go deeper in our analysis. The political impasse is rooted in a cultural impasse. Culture, derives from “cult,” a synonym for worship. We create cultures, societies, like the God or god(s) we worship.

What kind of God/god do you worship? Each religion—animism, humanism, nature, etc.—creates a certain value system and outlook that will ultimately shape policy, politics and the nation. The freedoms of the West represent the outworking of Judeo-Christian Theism.

We are witnessing in the United States today the changing of an order, not simply a political order but a moral and metaphysical order, from a nation of freedom within a moral framework to a nation of license without moral constraints. Angst is growing among America’s people watching this dramatic change unfolding.

Three levels of understanding

Both Theism and Atheism are, at the deepest level, consciously and intentionally held in faith. People consciously reflect on the nature of what is ultimately real—God, for the Theist; the silent universe, for the atheist—and for the consequences of understanding  who we are, why we are here, etc.

The next level of understanding may be called near memory, what we have heard from parents, grandparents, teachers, experts, social media, songwriters, playwrights and actors. Beliefs at this level have not been consciously examined, but simply accepted as true because they came from an expert or trusted authority.

The third level is that of distant memory; it is the air we breathe, it is the spirit of the age we live in.

But no matter how deeply ideas are held, they have consequences, they shape our societies profoundly.

The divide splitting the USA, as well as nations in Europe and elsewhere, is not primarily political but cultural. Ultimately it is a worship divide, worship of the self, some other idol, or worship of the living God who created the universe and who loves us.

This divide will not be solved at the political level, where the fighting is taking place now; it will not be solved at the political level, nor in the policies of the incoming culturally Left administration.

The cultural Left may control the levers of political power, including the cancel culture of the academy, entertainment, communication and titans of industry, but they cannot break the will of those who in good conscience disagree with them. Those who hold their convictions out of serious reflection and intention will not be swayed. Those who hold their positions from memory may stick their heads in the sand and hope the effects will be superficial or temporary.

Is an explosion coming?

We are currently in a pressure cooker and the cultural Left is swiftly closing off the relief valves of freedom of speech, assembly, and worship. If the nation does not restore these basic freedoms, an explosion is the likely result.

The unthinkable could happen, the cultural war could turn into a civil war. Some people, out of frustration, might take up arms. But as Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong famously said “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” Those with the biggest gun will win.

The answer to this moment will not be found in politics nor in violence. It ultimately will be found at the altar of worship. It will be discovered where the founding fathers of this great nation began, with the worship of the living God, in Whom they put their trust to form a more perfect union.

Let’s begin by repentance, seeking to restore our relationship with the living God. Then, in all humility, let us seek to restore the cultural-shaping institutions of the arts and education so that a new reformation of freedom will transform this land.

• Darrow Miller

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