The United States is currently in a pitched battle for the soul of the Nation. Two visions are in play. The first is the one that was present at the founding of the Country, and has at its core the concept that “all men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” [paraphrased]. The second vision is more totalitarian in its formulation: man can be his own god and create an utopia via an all knowing and controlling government.

Here is C. S. Lewis (1898 – 1963) on tyranny:

‪”Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”

Lewis speaks here of a “sincerely exercised” tyranny, and in the current totalitarian push, there are surely those who believe with sincerity that what they are doing is for our own good. They are wrong. This is simply pride.

But there are far more who wish the tyranny for their own power and aggrandizement. This is another form of pride. A worse one, if such is possible.

Both forms of pride have idolatry as their handmaiden. Idolatry ensnares those who participate in it by deceiving them so well that they are no longer able to ask, is there not a lie in my right hand? (Isaiah 44:18-20)

Both forms of pride have another thing in common. The perpetrators believe they can be and are their own god. In both cases they have forgotten this elemental truth: Either we trust God by affirming all his revealed wisdom, or we play god by deciding what He got wrong.

From the #imjustsaying series