Lynn Baber… for love of God and horses

One of my favorite patriotic songs is “God Bless America.” But is she still blessable? The evidence of a country once united under God is fast disappearing from the landscape, both politically and literally. As the evidence diminishes so does our unity.

The cross has been removed from many places where it once heralded the connection between our people and the true Founder of our land. The Ten Commandments have been removed from the public squares of the coastal cities and are threatened on civic greens in the Biblebelt itself. The pulse of the heartland of the United States is growing ever more irregular and faint, as a warning of the spread of heart disease in the body that is America.

What is a distinctive symptom of the spiritual disease spreading across our nation? Tolerance.

The parable of the Prodigal Son found in the fifteenth chapter of Luke is very instructive as we seek to answer the question, “Is America still blessable.”

The prodigal son returned home powerless, penniless, disgraced; wanting nothing more than servant status – a significant move up the food chain from where his errant ways had delivered him. The company he kept in his foolishness included harlots, drunkards and spendthrifts. All were fools and all his fellows in sin.

Upon returning home the prodigal’s father welcomed him back with joy and outstretched arms. What is most instructive is who was not welcomed with him in this blessed homecoming. The son returned humbled and alone. Not one harlot, one drunkard or even one spendthrift accompanied him.

American ‘tolerance’ as it is being preached today would suggest that if the prodigal son were to return home full of attitude, wanting to move his profligate self into Dad’s house along with his retinue of fools and harlots, then a spirit of tolerance would require Dad to submit to living with what was personally abhorrent to him. And not only sharing his roof, but providing food, a stylish wardrobe, electronics and spending money. Anything less would be mean-spirited and intolerant.

This is not how the story goes in my Bible. The prodigal son came back to his father’s house with remorse, apology and with no expectation other than the hope of his daily bread in payment of daily labor. The son returned in a right spirit, and as a metaphor for the awesome forgiveness show us by our Father, he was welcomed home, regaining as a gift his full status of beloved son.

Tolerance is not supporting and endorsing another person’s choices. It is allowing them the freedom to succeed or fail as a result of their own decisions without either our assistance or resistance.

Spiritual disease defines tolerance as the duty of the many to support the whims of the few. Tolerance presented in such a light also defines tyranny. This path of progressive tolerance follows a similar errant path to the one that lead to the slaughter of the goose that laid the golden eggs in the famous children’s fable.

So, is America still blessable? I shudder to consider the consequences if the answer is “no.” There is, however, good news. Even if the USA is no longer blessable, as individuals we are entitled to consideration apart from the nation of our citizenship.

You are the prodigal son walking up the path to the home you fled in search of self-satisfaction. What is on your heart as you catch the first glimpse of your father?