Preserving America for Future Generations
JACK W. HAYE
Several years ago, we began a project to seriously consider our role in helping to preserve the liberties that we enjoy as Americans. At that time the potential threats to those liberties looked different in many ways than they do today. In light of the world-wide pandemic, we are now in emergency response mode that is potentially reshaping both our individual freedoms and the role of government.
How quickly the world has changed in the past few months! We now find ourselves willing relinquishing certain individual freedoms for the sake of slowing the virus - important and appropriate steps in light of a fast-moving threat. But will those freedoms be easily regained after the pandemic is passed.? Are we making decisions today that will need to be unwound for the sake of our liberties? Will the control that has been temporarily ceded to government agencies be recoverable?
As Justice Samuel Alito recently noted, we need to be very careful during this time when reality and perception are so easily blurred - a blurring that is constantly fed by social media and the 24/7 news cycle.
Today, our efforts at preserving the best of America may hinge upon our ability to encourage our leaders at all levels of government - from school boards, town councils, state assemblies to our national leaders - to put aside any partisan politics or any desire to grab the spotlight for a fleeting moment and slow down enough to think through the long-term ramifications of decisions being made in the heat of the moment.
There are certainly decisions that need to be made quickly in the context of triage. But we could also be in danger in the coming days of an artificial extension of the cry for urgent action as a means of reshaping of our American liberties into a more truncated form. Liberties that we have perhaps willingly handed over in pursuit of a promise to just make the COVID-19 threat go away.
When and how will those liberties be returned to us?
All important questions for policy makers to consider as they work with imperfect information to form far-reaching policies. There is a need for decisive action. But we need to take enough time to carefully consider the longer-term ramifications of strategies being (often hastily) put in place at the local, state and national level.
Not an easy task. Certainly, one that needs supernatural aid.
That’s where we come in as followers of Christ.
We live with the hopeful tension between a fallen world and a Sovereign God. While we are not promised that we will be spared the hardships of life, we are promised His Presence as we walk through difficulties.
As we can observe in Jesus’ ministry, sometimes He calmed the wind and seas, sometimes He calmed his followers while the storm raged on unabated.
His words found in John 6:21 are so applicable to us today:
“Don’t be afraid. I am here!”
As His followers, we recognize that we have a role to play in caring for our students, our families and our communities. My hope and my prayer is that the Body of Christ will be found faithful during this time when so many face uncertainty about their health, their jobs and their futures.
We do not know what the future holds, but we do know the One who stands on the other side of time and offers His Presence and His Comfort for the meeting of every trial – even COVID-19.
Will be found faithful to love and care for our neighbors during this time? Or will we wait for the government to step in with a new program?
Will the best of what it means to be an American rise to the top?
Will we implement careful laws and policies that promote human flourishing long after COVID-19 is a footnote in the history text books?
By God’s grace and His mercy, I believe we can IF we approach our tasks as leaders with humility and without agendas.
We will get through this. Let us pray that we will emerge a stronger, not a weaker nation on the other side. Much depends on the choices we make in the coming days.
Our hope is ultimately not in policies and programs -no matter how carefully crafted or well-intended. Our hope is in the LORD.
As the Psalmist David reminded us
“The LORD is my strength and my shield; in Him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to Him.” Psalm 27:7
Now that is good news for a change!
Jack W. Haye serves as president of Patrick Henry College in Virginia.