It is natural to feel afraid during and after a shocking, scary or dangerous event. Nearly everyone will experience a range of reactions after trauma, but most people recover from initial symptoms naturally. Those who continue to experience problems may be diagnosed with PTSD. A new form of PTSD ( Post Trump Stress Disorder) has spread across American, seemingly infecting many of our institutions and endangering the health of millions of our citizens. A large swath of our country has just not been able to accept that Donald Trump was elected president.
The mainstream media has experienced a complete meltdown. According to the Media Research Center, broadcast television news coverage of President Trump was over 90% negative in the first quarter of 2018.With this animosity being displayed on a constant basis, it is little wonder that some unhinged leftists have been aroused into a frenzy and have actually threatened President Trump and his family.
For example, actor Johnny Depp “joked” about assassinating the President whereas lame comedian Kathy Griffin imitated jihadists and posed holding a decapitated head bearing a strong resemblance to President Trump. In addition, actor Peter Fonda recently tweeted, “We should rip Barron Trump from his mother’s arms and put him in a cage with pedophiles.” Such treatment of President Obama and his family would have never been allowed.
We are witnessing something that we have never seen before. The mainstream media is actually pounding the drumbeats of hatred day after day, ignoring facts in favor of showing contempt for our president and his followers. When you say something long enough and loud enough many people are going to believe you. We literally have millions of people in this country who truly believe that President Trump is the moral equivalent of Adolf Hitler and that the Republican Party is a bunch of fascists.
Few instances illustrate more completely the absurdity of our current political discourse than the recent controversy over separated children at the southern border. Most reporting of this horrible situation was intended to make you believe that it was a new phenomenon with President Trump totally responsible for it all.
The New York Times published a shocking first-hand account of the horrific conditions a mother and her young son faced after immigrating to the United States from El Salvador. Unfortunately for the mainstream media that asylum seeker’s tragic account happened in 2014 under Obama. The Times piece illustrates that this is an ongoing issue that has been a serious problem for a long time. While the woman’s horrifying tale would be tragic under any administration, it begs the question of why immigration was covered so much differently during the previous administration.
Former Obama administration DHS Sec., Jeh Johnson has admitted that his agency clearly expanded family detention, which included the regular separation of many children from their illegal immigrant parents. Yet Dem. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut compared the latest incident to stuffing “people in cattle cars and sending them to death camps.” Where was this outrage 4 years ago?
Going forward, Americans can only hope that the media will tone down their anti-Trump coverage because the results are damaging to the country. It has led to an environment in which 71% of Democrats want to impeach the President, and there are many who actually would rather see our country fail than have Trump succeed. Bill Maher of HBO, recently stated, I think one way of getting rid of Trump is a crashing economy. So please, bring on a recession.” That means Maher would rather see millions out of work than have Trump stay in the Oval Office. He obviously is infected with PTSD.
What is not reported in the infected media is Trump’s accomplishments. You may not agree with his methods but the results have been unprecedented. Here are just a few: He oversaw the largest tax cut in America history. Unemployment is the lowest in 22 years. The stock market has hit record highs more than 80 times since he took office. The U.S. Embassy was finally moved to Jerusalem. Not one, but two conservative justices will be added to the Supreme Court. He has stood up for religious liberties and the pro-life movement more than any president in recent history. And when is the last time you heard about Isis?
Credit should be given when credit is due but those that are blinded by PTSD cannot accept that Trump has actually done some good things for our country. Instead of giving credit they have adopted a new tactic to vent their frustration. Taking a page out of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter from three hundred and seventy five years ago, the political left is now publicly shaming those who don’t align with their views.
In the space of a couple of weeks leftist protesters individually targeted Trump aide Stephen Miller, taunted Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen in a restaurant and at her home, mocked (and allegedly spat at) Florida attorney general Pam Bondi at a movie theater, and denied service to Trump press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders at a restaurant in Lexington, Va.
At a weekend rally in California, Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters encouraged her supporters to “absolutely harass” Trump staffers. “If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”
What does it mean to say that members of the opposing view are not welcome anymore, anywhere in the conversation? Not welcome to live freely and go about their daily lives with their families? Does that sound like the America you want to live in? Does that sound like liberty, freedom or justice?
Glenn Harlan Reynolds, a law professor writing for USA Today, responded to the political animosity of these days under the headline, “Is America headed toward a civil war? Sanders, Nielsen incidents show it has already begun.”
The Founders were convinced that the democracy they birthed stood on a consensual Judeo-Christian moral worldview. Today, that worldview is being rejected and replaced by a relativistic ethic that confuses truth with opinion and morality with preference. During our Civil War more than 150 years ago, we were divided into blue and gray camps. Today we are blue and red. And people on both sides seem ready to fight.
Our country is in a dangerous position in this hour. Fuses are short, nerves are on edge, and fists are clenched. Violence could break out at any moment in this atmosphere of rage. May it never be said that God’s people fueled this fire. But may it also never be said that we backed down in such a critical time in American history. A battle for the very soul of America is raging and Christians need to step up.
This is a moment for compassionate courage on the part of God’s people. Refuse to let popular opinion and vehement rhetoric lure you from the truth. No matter how loudly someone claims that wrong is right, wrong is still wrong. We need to pray for the courage to speak the truth. George Orwell was right: “The further a society drifts from truth the more it will hate those who speak it.” But the more it needs such truth in love.
The question now is how Christians will position themselves in the midst of this heightened hostility. If we continue to sit on the sidelines we will continue to lose more of our freedoms. Now is the time to armor up and fight for what is right and what is truth. This is not the time for the summer soldier or the sunshine patriot.
But as we take up this fight we need to do it in a way that honors our faith. If you find yourself blowing up when you watch newscasts, when you discuss politics with co-workers or when engaging in social media, remember this: Proverbs 29:11 (NASB) says, “A fool always loses his temper, but a wise man holds it back.” Every time we lash out at our enemies we are driving a deeper wedge between Jesus and the people who need Him. We must take a strong stand on issues without hurting our Christian witness.
Our most effective weapon still is prayer. We need to pray for peace in America. We need to pray for the courage to speak the truth in love. We also need to pray that the spirit of civility would come upon our leaders (including our president), the press and especially those who have been infected by PTSD. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you the courage to stand strong in your beliefs but also to use you as a calming voice in these troubled times.