A Day of Sorrow and Apprehension

credit: Brett Sayles

Today, our country has a new President. I have grave concern that our country is heading in the wrong
direction. While I want to rally behind the leader of our country, I do not like the way his ideas deviate from the spirit and optimism we've always had. America was and is great. We do not need someone to "shake things up" to make it great. Our country was founded by immigrants and immigrants have helped make our country great. Other countries are losing population because of low birth rates and no one wants to move there. People want to come to our country and most of them want to pitch in and work hard. But we are now going to be more hostile to them so we will lose out on people who want to come here and work hard.

I am also concerned about our foreign relations. The new President antagonizes our allies but praises and admires autocratic leaders. He seems to admire dictators. I am afraid he is going to abandon Ukraine and allow Russia to profit from its aggression. I am afraid he won't work to keep China from putting more pressure on Taiwan. I'm afraid he will not push for a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians. I am afraid that our country will no longer help poor countries in the world and leave them to be helped (and influenced) by China who will then have diplomatic influence with those countries.

I am worried about the environment and global warming. He doesn't want to cooperate with other countries to reduce human influence on CO2 levels but wants to keep pushing use of fossil fuels and cut back on switching to sustainable and renewable energy like wind and solar. He is against having incentives for people to switch to electric cars and to expand the charging network in our country. He claims he is backing what the automakers and auto workers want but what will happen is that we will continue to make out-of-date vehicles and will fall behind other countries who will progress in their manufacturing of them.

My biggest concern, though, is his influence on the Christian church. He and his people want to force people into acting like they are religious. He wants to push the rule following of religion without the loving of our neighbor as Jesus taught. He wants to have The Ten Commandments displayed in schools and courts saying we a Christian nation. The Ten Commandments are Jewish rules, though. Why does he and his people not want The Beatitudes displayed in the courts? Why do they not want The Sermon on the Mount shown in our schools? Because they do not want true Christianity. He and his people are Pharisees who want to study the laws and make their own interpretations of them. They don't understand that we follow the commandments because we love God and want to do what Jesus told us. We love God and love our neighbor. I am afraid this may be the beginnings of the Apostate Church (an official state church controlled by the government) we see in The Revelation.

I know God is in control and it will all work out but God allowed Ahab to lead Israel. He allowed Herod to rule in Jerusalem. This is a test. Will we follow Jesus or will we follow humans?

[The flag image is from: https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-showing-usa-flag-921259/ by Brett Sayles]