Thoughts on National Sins

While it is true that we have wrested 2 Chronicles 7:14 out of context and rarely note that it is a scripture dealing with the physical healing of Israel's land so that its farms will produce an abundance of crops, it is nevertheless true that God gave the territory we call the United States of America to our godly forefathers who sought to establish on these shores a nation ruled by God, like Israel of old; and it is equally true that in any nation, the spiritual state of the country depends on the obedience of God's children within that country. Therefore, it is entirely appropriate to use 2 Chronicles 7:14 in a spiritual context as we pray for the spiritual healing of a nation that once knew, but has subsequently turned its back on, the Creator-God. Although it may seem a bit odd that the sins of God's people can somehow be connected to evil in a nation, and while we certainly do not mean to imply that the recent terrorist attacks against the United States were caused by American sin, it is nevertheless true, that by turning our backs on God as a nation, we have taken our country out from under His protective care which could have prevented those attacks, and it is also true that believers bear some major responsibility for national sin in that to the degree that it prevails, we have failed to be the salt preventing the spread of corruption that Jesus called us to be.

To reiterate, there is no excuse for terrorism, and no one is to blame for heinous murder except those who perpetrated the crimes. Nevertheless, the church in general in America has failed to be the savory salt that would have helped prevent the widespread abandonment of God's ways, which in turn brought the nation to a place where His protection was less available. It does, therefore, behoove us to repent of sin and call on His name to heal our land.

As we repent, two classifications of sin must be considered -- individual sin, which can be found out only by personally seeking the face of God and asking Him to reveal to us any uncleanness so that we might turn from it in repentance; and collective national sin, for which we are not individually responsible, but which we have failed collectively to prevent by our weakness and cowardliness in resisting evil. It is not that we as believers caused our national sins, but we as believers, in failing to be salt, allowed an atmosphere to develop that contributed to their rise. Perhaps our sin is in our failure to pray diligently, or in our self-centeredness that caused us to be oblivious to the rise of sin around us, or to our neglect of political involvement, or perhaps to generalized apathy born of affluence.

What exactly are the national sins of America, the sins that Christians did not cause, but that Christians failed to protest strongly enough to prevent? While this is not an exhaustive list, several come readily to mind, viz.:

1. Consumerism -- the philosophical absorption of an attitude that places value on people and relationships based on what they purchase and possess rather than on whom they are as individuals created in the likeness of God. We use, for example, the word "dysfunctional" to describe psychopathological families, thus defining mental health in terms of function, rather than in terms of being. God is most interested in who we are, not primarily in our ability to function, and even less, in what we consume along the way.

2. Lasciviousness -- the absorption of cultural mores that are an extension of consumerism and therefore view others as objects to satisfy sexual desire, rather than as people with the potential to live with God forever. Our media is so inundated with sexually charged messages that we scarcely notice them any longer - virtually everything is sold by sex appeal. Lasciviousness expresses itself in sexually suggestive advertising, in sexually charged innuendo in situation comedies, in sexually explicit videos and video games, softly pornographic news magazines and motion pictures, popular musical lyrics, and popular dress styles, as well as through pervasive pornography, all of which degrades people (most often women) into objects.

3. The perversion of sexuality -- closely related to lasciviousness and consumerism is the perversion of sexuality in general in our culture -- the attempt to pass off premarital sex, extramarital sex, homosexual sex, and even incest as acceptable expressions of sexuality, and by so doing, undermining the scriptural insistence that sexuality is a God-given gift to male husbands and their legally married female wives for the purpose of propagating the race, training its children, and expressing a depth of emotional intimacy that is meaningless and dangerous outside of traditional marriage. The clear biblical teaching is that all these perversions are sinful, harmful and wrong, yet we have hosts of pseudo-social scientists telling us that homosexuality, bestiality, adultery, and incest are evolutionarily normal, and even genetically "hard-wired" into the species. Their science is so flimsy as to be rejected by every credible clinician, but even if homosexuality, bestiality, adultery and incest were "natural" desires, the Bible distinctly tells us to resist and subdue our sinful desires. We are exhorted to "put on Christ," to "cast off the flesh," to "flee youthful lust," and we are encouraged to learn that any person in Christ is "a new creation -- old things have passed away and all things have become new"; and that we have already been given "all things that pertain to life and godliness" in Christ Jesus. Therefore, regardless of how "natural" sinful urges may be, every believer in Jesus has the spiritual equipment to resist them and live a holy, sexually pure life.

4. The undermining of the sanctity of human life -- a subtle process that has now reduced unborn children to "products of conception" that can be disposed of at will by the millions each year, and is reducing our elderly to unwanted economic drains to be discarded via euthanasia under the guise of dying with "dignity." Additionally, our educational institutions have preached an untried and unscientific brand of evolutionary theory for so long as if it were absolute fact, that we have produced a generation of young people who see themselves as only slightly above the apes, and act the part, complete with rampant promiscuity, violence and murder. It is no mere aberration that brutal murders are being increasingly committed by children in elementary school. Human life in America is virtually worthless.

5. Racism and anti-Semitism continue to plague our society in spite of decades of reforms and billions of dollars spent on tolerance education. The World Wide Web is filled with hate sites, and thousands more proliferate daily. Neo-Nazi groups are experiencing strong recruitment, and people of color are still often the last hired and the first fired if the employer can get away with it. Racism pervades our speech and our attitudes, and causes churches to be among the most segregated places in the nation. Racism and anti-Semitism both are additional ways of reducing, dehumanizing and degrading people - seeing them as objects rather than as individual souls.

6. The destruction of the environment with which God entrusted us displeases our Creator as well. We do not, of course, worship nature, but we are called to take good care of it and preserve it for future generations, rather than exploited every opportunity to make money.

7. The dehumanization of the poor, as evidenced by the continued critical affordable housing shortage and the number of homeless people in America, is evidence of a fundamental selfishness, a lack of caring and compassion, that degrades not only the objects of our scorn, but ourselves as well.

8. The abandonment of God -- the United States of America was founded by individuals covenanted together in their common belief in Christianity for the purpose of establishing a nation unified in its foundational belief in a Creator who endowed His human creation with inalienable freedom of worship, i.e., the freedom to follow the teachings of the Holy Scriptures without fear of governmental interference; yet, in the last four decades, our courts, institutions of higher learning, public schools, and mass media have been controlled by those whose philosophic bias is anti-American, anti-Capitalistic, anti-Christian, and anti-God. That control has resulted in the wholesale elimination of God, Christianity and patriotism from the legal and educational systems, and the replacement of those values and beliefs with multiculturalism, which denies the uniqueness of American culture; atheism, which denies the existence of God; secular humanistic evolutionary theory, which denies the moral foundation of humanity; and a potpourri of false religious beliefs ranging from New Age to Satanism, which have encouraged behavior that is diametrically opposed to God's revealed will. Consequently, in America today, we have raised an entire generation, who themselves now have children in elementary and middle school, who have never heard a Bible story, never been inside a church (except perhaps for a wedding or funeral), never been exposed to a Christian world view, nor to Biblical morality, and are, in effect, worshipping all that is false, evil and wrong. God has been either legally mandated or legislatively removed from our public life. We have sown the wind, and are reaping the tornado.

God be merciful on us, for we have sinned, our people and we have rebelled against you O Lord, the righteous judge of all the earth. Forgive us for Jesus' sake, we pray.

© 2001 by Lawrence Russell Taylor, Ph.D.

This essay may be reproduced and distributed freely without charge under the condition that it is reproduced and distributed without any changes, in its entirety, including this notice. While we appreciate feedback, we are unable to respond personally to all comments. The views and opinions herein expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of any other individual, group or organization. Dr. Taylor is the senior pastor of Calvary Church, located at 60 Hastings Street in Lowell, Massachusetts. Our phone number is: 978-459-9598.

Originally published December 07, 2001.