“By our own vices, not by chance, have we lost the republic, though we retain the name.” St. Augustine, City of God, (bk. XI ch. 21) Augustine might just as well been speaking of the current American empire which, 1,600 years later, has succeeded its Roman antecedent, while apparently learning very little from its fate. That is the historical trajectory of all empires, however, and in the long run we shall fare no better than the rest: Macedonia, Rome, Spain, France, Britain, Soviet Union, etc.

President John Adams once remarked that the then new American republic was fit only for a moral and religious people, arguing that this republican system of government would only endure so long as God remained at the center of her citizen’s lives. The question is whether after 250 years of that experiment in self-government by and for the people we still fit the bill outlined by Adams. To any contemporary casual observer this once viably Christian land no longer seems to function within a Christian context. Granted, there are still a substantial number of Christians around, but their voices have become that of a minority. Even among those who claim to be Christians, what we too often see is a caricature of Christianity.

One recent example is the disturbing invocation by Secretary of War(crimes?) Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon as he seriously quoted a Biblical parody taken from the Hollywood movie Pulp Fiction. The Evangelical Hegseth lifted a gangster character’s take on Ezekial 25: 15-17 out of its movie context, invoking God to exact merciless vengeance on our enemies (the Iranian people) to basically expunge them from the face of the earth. More shocking was the Easter morning message by President Donald Trump on Truth Social where he profanely demanded Iran “open the f###ing Straits,” ending his vile tirade with a sarcastic “Praise be to Allah.” Days later, while still in Easter week, Trump threateningly posted, “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be restored.” Presumably he was referring to that deeply rooted Persian civilization, well over 3,500years old before our American republic ever became a pipe dream. So what ever became of that aspect of Christianity which demands, “love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father.” (Mt.5: 44) Apparently we have adopted an exclusively “Old Testament” style Christianity as though the New Testament had never modified the former “eye for an eye” narrative.