Under God

Did you hear about the flap over NBC editing out the words “under God” in a piece they did last week?

In their coverage of the U.S. Open Golf Tournament, the network aired a patriotic video segment with school children reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Interestingly, the phrase “under God, indivisible” was left on the cutting room floor.

Should we make anything of this? NBC executives offered an apology for what they said was a “mistake.” Was it a simple mistake (it was actually omitted twice), or was this a calculated decision to further a liberal agenda that has no tolerance for God, wants nothing to do with God, doesn’t like God and doesn’t like people who do. Hmmm…you decide.

To me it’s obvious that the mainstream media is fueling an increasingly atheistic culture. And the majority is buying into it hook, line and sinker. We’re living like Israel during the time of the judges, when “everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). This cultural tide has more or less swept away all things godly. We’re doing whatever we want, whatever we think is right in our own eyes with nary a glance toward following after the ways of the Lord, and often in deliberate defiance against Him.

We’ve taken prayer out of schools and started handing out condoms. We’ve devalued God’s gift of life and legalized the killing of babies in the womb. We’ve spit in the face of the One who ordained marriage. We’ve gone overboard to protect the “rights” of pornographers and producers of violent and graphic video games while failing to protect our children and citizenry. We’ve worshipped the gods of money, fame and pleasure while spurning the God who made us and sustains us.

Our founding fathers must be reeling in their graves. Never in a million years would they have dreamed of the lengths to which this nation has gone to remove all references to Christianity in the United States of America. Read some of the founding documents and you’ll see how readily they recognized God’s sovereign, providential hand birthing and shaping this land.

You may even remember when Pres. Eisenhower signed into law the measure which added the phrase “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance. In an accompanying congressional report, the measure read: “From the time of our earliest history our people and our institutions have reflected the traditional concept that our Nation was founded on a fundamental belief in God.”

Yet now we want Him out.

But, listen. My real concern is not with the media or the culture. It doesn’t surprise me in the least that NBC would drop “under God” from the Pledge. I’m not shocked to hear that New York has legalized same-sex marriage. Ungodly people doing ungodly things bothers me, yes, but it doesn't startle me.

My real concern is with the church. We are simply not being the salt and the light in this world as we are called to be. Our witness is silent. Our testimony is weak. Our faith is little. Our compassion is pathetic. Our love is cold. Our righteousness is wretched. Our worship is lip service. In short, our lives are not much reflecting the light and the glory of our Savior Jesus Christ in a dark and twisted generation.

The Lord still has his faithful remnant, to be sure, but the majority of those who claim to be Christians in this nation have been far more influenced by the worldly culture for Satan’s purposes than they have influenced the culture for the Kingdom of Christ. And I am convinced that we are now and will continue to experience the judgment of God for ours sins.

Church, I’m pleading with you (with us) to repent and return to the Lord with all your heart. It’s time to get rid of the foreign gods among us, confess our sins and cry out to God for mercy. It’s time to come before the Lord with fasting, weeping and mourning, and rend our hearts in His presence. It’s time for us to truly come together as one nation under God. For He indeed is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. And “who knows whether He will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him…?” (Joel 2:14).