Why You Should Love America.
Hello all! The past month has been very busy, but I’m back. It seems that I missed some of the biggest news in the past century while I was away. The Israel/Iran war has ended, New York City is flirting with a Marxist mayor, and Kevin DeYoung is on an insane power trip. So this week I’m going to give a recap from the past month of news along with some stories from this past week.
Why You Should Love America.
It’s the 4th of July! One of the best holidays of the year where we grill out, spend time with family, and celebrate the founding of the greatest country the world has ever know: The United States of America. And it is the greatest country of all time, regardless of what Russell Moore, David French, and the Marxists over at Christianity Today and TGC tell you. So, because of the holiday, I thought I would start this newsletter by praising this country for the good it’s produced over the past 249 years before you open your other newsletters from your local churches who are surely going to lecture you with poor exegetical skill about being exiles and strangers and foreigners and how patriotism is bad because of “Christian Nationalism”— blah blah blah.
America is an amazing country and you should love it. Basically every single thing you take for granted was a result of the founding of this country. And the founding of this country, like we talked about in my podcast with Tim Mahoney, Robert P George, and Stephen Meyer, was most certainly guided by the Providential Hand of God. Great men like George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison along with the continental army risked their lives to build a free nation for their decedents. They broke free from the tyrannical oversight of Great Britain and fought for their right to worship God in accordance with their own conscience (despite what liberal and revisionist historians might tell you!)
Some of the most thoughtful, bold, and truthful theologians have come from this great land, like Johnathan Edwards, J. Gresham Machen, and Charles Hodges. Men who boldly spoke the truth of the Gospel and preached fire from the pulpit to save sinners from the hands of an angry God (credit to Mr. Edwards). These great minds released theological texts that will go down in history like Machan’s Christianity and Liberalism, Edward’s previously mentioned sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, and Charles Hodges’ Systematic Theology. The reason these men could so freely and boldly publish their thoughts was because they lived in a nation that allowed men to think, speak, and live in accordance with their own conscience.
But America has produced much more than great theological minds and texts. We fought a civil war over the dignity of the human person, we traveled West to find new lands and entrepreneurial opportunities, we produced the light bulb, we crushed the hopes of the Nazis and Hitler in their pursuit of world domination, we created the Atomic Bomb, we put a man on the moon, we created airplanes, we witnessed the greatest athlete in human history, Michael Jordan, win six NBA Championships, we rose back from the rubble of 9/11 and defeated al-Qaeda, and we, once again, eliminated the threat of authoritarianism by electing Donald Trump instead of Kamala Harris.
These great feats in American history only tell a small sliver of the entire story of this great country. It’s very easy to see the Providential Hand of God in the great events in history — it’s much more difficult to see the Hand of God in the small, mundane, and seemingly insignificant moments in history. The millions of Americans who devoted their lives to working honest jobs, raising their children, and making their local communities better must not go unnoticed. The janitors, farmers, factory workers, mechanics, engineers, and grocers (along with many other professions) often are ignored in modern society. Most people forget that they exist — but it’s a fact that these people are the one’s who make America work and run.
The beauty of the American experiment was in its commitment to opportunity and truth. The history of the Founding Fathers, the Civil War, the Great War, and World War II are rich in both sacrifice and morality. Men died so that we could live. At the heart of the American Dream was an old fashioned Christian virtue: love. Not the kind that is often preached from pulpits in the West today, rooted in feelings and ambiguity, no — the kind that convicted men of the past to sacrifice everything they had so that their children could live a better life. A kind of love that is still only a distant shadow of the great love of Jesus Christ. A love that dies so that we might live.
One of my favorite modern Conservative thinkers, Robert P. George, has said that when America has committed great sins in the past (and we have), it’s not a result of our founding values and commitments. In fact, it’s the opposite; it’s a result of America not living up to those values and commitments it was founded on. As the Declaration of Independence states,
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
The self-evident truth stated in this document 249 years ago still rings true today — but the question is now whether or not Americans will live up to those truths. We can hope and we can pray that the tides in this story of America can turn and look back to our founding before moving forward to our future. I certainly hope we can — I love the United States of America, and you should too. I will end this segment with one of the great quotes about this great country:
“I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers—and it was not there. . . . . in her fertile fields and boundless forests—and it was not there. . . . .in her rich mines and her vast world commerce—and it was not there. . . . in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution—and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.”
Is The Israel/Iran War Finally Over? And Was Tucker And Candace Right?
The events that unfolded over the past month related to the war in Israel were astonishing and chaotic. Leading up to June 13th there had been much talk over suspicions that Iran was very close to attaining a nuclear weapon. These suspicions led to a lot of debate within the MAGA coalition as to whether the United States should be involved in eliminating Iranian nuclear capacities — something President Trump has said he would do for 10 years if the situation presented itself — he’s been clear that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.
As you can imagine, many on the right like Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, and Matt Walsh argued that America cannot be involved in another “forever war” in the Middle East. It seems that both Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens have, in some ways, turned their back on the President over this exact issue. Both Tucker and Candace along with Walsh cannot stand to see America support an ally that is Jewish — in fact, they claimed, if Trump supports Israel in their endeavor to eliminate nuclear capacities in Iran, he is simply a puppet of the so-called war mongering Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his support of Israel will absolutely end up in a forever war in the Middle East similar to the one in the 2000s in Iraq.
So, what actually happened? Well… nothing close to what the isolationists claimed. In fact, the exact opposite of what Tucker and Candace said would happen actually happened. On June 13th, Israel launched an all out assault on Iranian nuclear facilities, scientists, and military leaders. This attack was an incredible military feat — Israel’s attacks had limited civilian casualties and took out almost every single target it set out to eliminate. The Iranians reacted with launching missiles at Israel and an official war was well on its way. I won’t bore you with the details as it seems that everyone was watching this series of event play out in real time.
What I will say is this: President Trump delivered one of the most well-executed and precise military operations in recent history while also maintaining some unity with the Republican party. On June 22nd, the United States Air Force and Navy attacked three Iranian nuclear facilities: The Fordow Uranium Enrichment Plant, the Natanz Nuclear Facility, and the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center with 14 bunker buster bombs carried by Northrop B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, and with Tomahawk missiles fired from a submarine. After the attack, Trump announced that,
A couple of days later President Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran and an end to what he called “The 12 Day War”.
So, what has the response been? Well, from the left you’re hearing a lot of what we’ve been hearing for a decade; “Trump bad — everything Trump say and do is bad”. Of course, we know that if any other President in history had accomplished this sort of geopolitical military and diplomatic feat, they would receive a Nobel Peace Prize in about five seconds. But not President Trump. It’s really sad to see that no matter what the guy does, the Democrats will not give him credit — even if it means saving lives in the Middle East and stopping a potential nuclear war.
The more interesting and still sad reality is that this Middle Eastern conflict has begun to sever the Republican party into two camps: isolationists who really hate Jews and normal Conservatives who recognize America’s place as a world Empire and are willing to get involved in foreign affairs for the sake of global peace. Tucker, Candace, Walsh, Alex Jones, and the rest are still holding out on apologizing to the American people for their incompetence and lying throughout this entire debacle — what else can you expect from the Woke Right?
Kevin DeYoung And The Evangelical Cesspool Of Biblical Incompetence And Spiritual Manipulation
How do you like that title?! It’s true. Kevin DeYoung, a pastor at Christ Covenant Church in Charlotte, NC, founder of Clearly Reformed, and associate professor of systematic theology at Reformed Theological Seminary, was chosen to moderate the PCA (Presbyterian Church of America) general assembly. Why? For obvious reasons that we’ll get into in a minute. First, I want you to watch this clip from the general assembly: https://x.com/FrankCapraJr/status/1937982416255389895
Let’s analyze Mr. DeYoung’s decorum. First, a teaching elder from a church within the PCA, in an extremely respectful manner, raises his concerns related to a movement of black-only worship nights and affinity groups rising up within his denomination — we would simply call that “segregation” because that’s exactly what segregation is. Here is the definition of “segregation” for those of you who do not know (according to Webster’s dictionary):
The teaching elder, Timothy Brindle, then rightly quotes a verse from the book of James, chapter 2:
“My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord JesusChrist, the Lord of glory.”
And then makes the completely reasonable and Biblical application that if the coordinator of the MNA (Missions to North America) says that he does not “feel safe” in spaces with white people simply because they are white, he is in violation of James 2 and the sanctifying grace of Jesus Christ. Do you have a problem with that statement? Any Biblical issues? I don’t think so. But Kevin DeYoung has a very big problem with what Timothy Brindle is saying here — so much so that he cuts Brindle’s mic so he can correct his “decorum” and temperance and then appears to completely move past what Brindle is saying to another matter altogether.
Why does DeYoung feel it necessary to shut down the concerns of an elder within his denomination? Why use arbitrary and manipulative language related to temperament and decorum to discredit this man? Why shut his mic off? Could it possibly be that DeYoung is under the influence of his own pride and arrogance — is the assertion that segregation within the church is a horrific violation of Scripture a threat to DeYoung’s big boy position in his big boy chair at the big assembly? It seems so.
But don’t listen to me — do some critical thinking. Do you think DeYoung would have appreciated the great Charles Spurgeon’s language, decorum, and temperament when he called for a civil war to end slavery in America and refused to take communion with a slave owner? I’m sure DeYoung would have been on the side of the slave owners — it’s safer over there. What do you think DeYoung would have said to G.K. Chesterton when he released his book, Heretics, in which he blasts the intellectuals of his day with such sarcastic and rude temperament? Or what would he have said to J. Gresham Machen when he severed ties with the PCA and Princeton University to start his own denomination and Seminary? Mr. DeYoung would have surely been taken aback by a poor Jewish man with a whip driving out moneychangers from a Jewish temple about 2000 years ago — this man had such bad “decorum” and “temperament” — maybe a lecture from Kevin DeYoung could straighten him out, said the Pharisees.
Is this behavior from DeYoung Biblically acceptable? Here’s what the Apostle Paul has to say in his first letter to Timothy:
“Teach and urge these things. If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.”
Did you catch that? “He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words”. I’ll be clear here: this one sentence sums up most of theological teaching and church governance in the United States. The vast majority of Pastors, elders, and teachers within the church are more interested in manipulating language to maintain power, money, and authority than teaching sound, clear, and Biblical doctrine. They stand on pedestals and lecture congregants on temperament and decorum while giving no concern for what the Bible actually says. And anyone who dissents from their linguistic game and demands sound, clear doctrine is outed as an uncharitable, divisive, and intellectually dishonest liar. Ironically, these characteristics are only accurate for the Kevin DeYoung’s of the world who see their position as a god among men. But it seems to me that the One True God is not rivaled by weak men in big boy chairs on power trips. Big Eva and her idolatry and pride will be brought down like Babel soon enough — or so we pray.
The Big Beautiful Bill
President Trump and the MAGA coalition were working nonstop this past week trying to pass the Big Beautiful Bill through Congress. And while the Democrats stalled for as long as they could, the bill passed. This bill, as you know, has caused much dissension within the Republican party with people like Thomas Massie, Elon Musk, Rand Paul, and Ron Johnson opposing the bill because of its size. These few Republicans, though some are much more Libertarian than Conservative, make a very good case for why we should not pass this massive bill.
On the campaign trail leading up to the 2024 Presidential election, Donald Trump promised on many occasions to balance the budget and stop government spending. Part of this promise was in his appointing Elon Musk to run DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) — Musk, after Trump was elected, got right to work in cutting useless government spending where possible. It looked to everyone like President Trump was going to keep true to his promises and cut wasteful spending… until this “Big Beautiful Bill”. The bill will add about $3 trillion to the national debt over the next decade. That’s right — $3 trillion, with a “t”.
Why is Trump doing this? Good question, it’s one that many Conservatives, including myself, are trying to figure out. It seems clear that financially speaking, Donald Trump and the new Right are more interested in continuing the downward spiral of governmental authoritarianism and market interference than they led on. I say all of that with a caveat that though I do not agree with the size of this bill, I think there are some good things in the bill like defunding Planned Parenthood (for a year). That said, the ends don’t justify the means. We cannot, as a country, continue to spend money like this while expecting our children and grandchildren to pay for it later on — in Christianity, this is called stealing. And stealing is bad. I would like to see the Trump Administration think a little more about the future before screwing my kids over financially.
