What now? We win back the culture

Twenty-five years ago I embarked on a personal mission to change the faces sitting in the seats of government. At the time, I had been awakening to the lessons of history and didn’t like the direction in which our country was headed. Like many others, I believed that slugging it out in the political arena was the only way to right the listing ship.

I was wrong.

That’s not to say that political battle isn’t necessary. But I now see that it is only part of the equation, and that the other part is probably even more important. So, the best I could have hoped for was to buy time. But, time for what?

I now see that, like in the Vietnam conflict I was part of, we had lost before we started and, surprisingly, for the same reason—we had lost the culture. When that occurs, you’re finished before you begin.

Today almost nobody remembers why we went to Vietnam in the first place. I do. Here we were, 12,000 miles away, supposedly battling the spread of communism, while here at home, communist ideals were infiltrating our society and undermining our way of life right under our noses.

That’s exactly what is going on in the political arena. We are off to Olympia or the other Washington to do political battle against ever-encroaching tyrannical socialism. Meanwhile, the masses are being educated by a leftist media, in collusion with a self-serving socialistic education establishment paid for with our tax dollars. In essence, we’re paying for our own demise.

Politically, we’ve lost nearly every major battle. We had lost before we started—we had lost the culture.

Now, 25 years later, I look back and see what our founders knew from the start: You cannot defeat ideas on a battlefield. You must defeat them inside your own culture through ongoing education. This is the only way to make your culture impervious to invasion. Too many of us never learned about our history until way too late in the game. Unfortunately for us, and the country at large, we relegated the “education” of upcoming generations to the very minds who stand against our foundational American principles.

So, throughout most of the past 25 years, it never dawned on me that the Vietnam thing was happening all over again. We were winning a few battles, but losing the war, and we knew it. Today, our foes control every major institution in America—starting with public education—and including a large part of the church and both political parties. Right under our noses, our adversaries have stolen two generations of Americans by undermining children’s education on their way to capturing the flag. They’ve done a great job of it. Most of America and the church have never heard the good news about the great foundational principles responsible for making the great nation we once were.

If we would pay attention, we could learn a lot from our adversaries. They’ve certainly taught me. Now I see that political battle and education go hand-in-hand. Political battle alone doesn’t work. You cannot make godly laws for an ungodly people—a people who no longer have a common purpose, or history, or umbrella societal code. They will either reject such laws by repeal, or ignore them altogether—exactly what we are witnessing today in our liberal courts.

Who would have guessed 25 years ago that today we would see legalized homosexual marriage, open marijuana usage, government-approved and -funded murder of innocent children, and euthanasia? What’s most amazing is that these changes in law in many states are being enacted not by the legislatures but by the people themselves through the initiative process. So that’s a lesson; if you don’t have the people with you, you have lost the war before you start.

Who would have believed that a government once erected to protect the inalienable right to life and liberty would become its greatest enemy? This would not have surprised our founders who had seen it throughout history and feared a civil government that reached outside its proper jurisdiction—exactly what propelled them into war with King George. A Constitution or rule of law has no value to an ignorant and waffling-minded people.

So, what now?

First, we need to grab ahold of the truth that ideals and political-ism’s are won or lost inside our own culture, not through political or physical warfare. The biggest threats we face are here at home, not in some foreign land. It isn’t about nukes in suitcases, suicide bombers, or fanatics with so-called assault weapons. All of that is mostly a sideshow, an endless line of boogeymen created to scare us into bigger government. So, also, is global warming and all of the other environmental and ideological terrorisms ravaging our economy and depleting our property rights.

If you’ve lost the culture, you’ve already lost the war against terror anyway. The real war is about people with empty heads and contaminated hearts. Like the Sons of Issachar, we need to understand our times in order to know what we should do. We need to take a breath and remember that there is nothing happening that surprises God, nor anything new under the sun.

Second, if we’re going to retake the culture, the Church is the only institution capable of leading the charge. We must find ourselves again. Jesus will have it no other way. We need to renew our understanding of just what the real job of the Church is—what evangelizing truly is. The Word of God must translate into real, everyday world living or it isn’t worth much. The Good News of redemption, salvation, forgiveness, and doing unto others was the foundation of the America we have lost. It is these principles that are the foundation of all our laws and culture and, therefore, the reason for our past success and prosperity. The more we’ve wandered away from these, the more we’ve ventured into no man’s land. Gone are the days when great principles reigned above lawlessness in the land.

Third, we need to get our minds around the understanding that liberty is the highest ideal and comes at the highest of prices. Our Father in Heaven gave us the greatest example when His Son’s precious blood was shed on the Cross for our spiritual liberty—the precursor to any civil liberty. And blood is, and will always be, the ultimate price of liberty. Quoting from Looking For America. “The great paradox lies in our understanding that to avoid the bloodshed we so abhor, we must always be willing to bleed in the first place.”

Last fall, right after the election, a friend asked me what happened. “How,” he asked, “did the president get re-elected?” It’s a question many others have been asking. “Why are you asking me that question?” I asked. He looked dumbfounded. So I asked him if he had ever put a sign in his yard, ever given money to a cause, or to a candidate he supported? He responded by saying no, no, and no. Yet whenever we are together, he is always full of what, I believe, are good opinions about politics. So I asked him what he thought would happen when he and countless others didn’t join the fight? Do you see, I added … opinions aren’t worth much if you don’t put your money where your mouth is? Freedom and liberty costs. And if you let it get away from you, it costs three times as much to get it back.

Finally, this …

The principles of Christianity are the only road to civil liberty, freedom, and prosperity. There is no other path. Without them, liberty cannot possibly be manifested into a civil society. Benjamin Franklin once remarked, “Whosoever shall introduce into public affairs the principles of primitive Christianity will change the face of the world.”

We did that once as a country and it worked. If the mission of America that began with the Pilgrims was another waypoint on the road to establishing His Kingdom on earth, then hope still remains. I never figured it would stop where it has. His Kingdom will come about; His will—will be done. Our only choice is whether we choose to be an active part of it or be passive.

I personally believe, now, that without some providential intervention, we can never get the great ship righted. Ironically, that’s also why I believe God will do exactly that. Maybe not by judgment in the traditional way we think, but by natural consequences that occur when you defy His principles over time.

When I look back over the past 25 years, it pains me and I feel tired, even that I have failed. The America we grew up in is long gone and we need to stop using the terminology that we’re going to “save it.” The fact is we lost it when we lost the culture, which began decades ago. Politically, we’ve lost nearly every major battle, and now the war. But we’ve only truly lost, if we don’t learn from it.

Perhaps, this past 100 years is but a step back, before the two steps forward. I hope so, because our children and their children, who for the most part are not paying much attention, are in for a rude awakening just over the horizon. I want to help them if I can. They are the ones who will have to rebuild from the rubble. Thank God for redemption.

Editor’s Note: Doug Simpson is a 25-year veteran legislative campaign and public affairs consultant residing in Washington state and is a Samaritan Ministries member. He played a crucial role in the passage of a safe harbor bill in his state for health care sharing ministries after Washington’s Department of Insurance issued a cease-and-desist order for Samaritan Ministries. He is the author of Looking For America, a very personal look at the roots of political ideology and worldviews. He is a four-year Marine Corps and Vietnam combat veteran.