A Plea for America: Our Idols Are Killing Us

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2 Chronicles 20:33; However, the high places were not removed, and the people still had not set their hearts on the God of their ancestors.....

Hello everyone. I had no intention of writing this today as it is now, but once I started typing, it just kept coming. I have long since learned that is a very good sign that I’m writing what I’m supposed to write. This writing gives me absolutely no joy and it is necessary for us all. With this writing, we have chance to flip the script. We are at a crossroads in this nation and in Christendom. We are in a fight for our very souls as well as the soul of this nation. We have an idol problem in this nation and in Christendom. Our idols are killing us. Please be aware that some of the things I am going to write from this point forward will be hard to read and that is okay. We must hit our idols head-on if we are to break the stranglehold they have on Christendom and our nation. The soul of America is on life support and time is running out.

September 10^th, 2025

The horrific killing of Charlie Kirk and aftermath have exposed the high places (in their full color) polluting this nation: political idolatry, ideologic idolatry, and violence. These idols are not the images of wood, stone, gold or silver that dominated the world in centuries past. They, however, do capture the minds of millions through media, rhetoric, idealistic promises, and the hope of an imagined utopia (all without God in many cases I might add). They function the same way idols did thousands of years ago - to divide, to distract, to distort, to disrupt, to degrade, and to ultimately destroy our lives and the lives of those around us.  These idols will ultimately destroy our country, if we let them. 

For one young man last week, these idols destroyed his life as he knows it, they destroyed his families' life as they know it, they took the life of another image bearer who did not deserve it (no matter what you think of him or whether you agreed with him or not), and have robbed two families of peace, happiness, and stability. These idols have robbed all of us of peace, happiness, and stability in the days since.  And the imagined utopia and promise of a better nation? They are nowhere to be found. Idols lie. Idols make promises they won’t keep to people in all walks of life regardless of religion or political affiliation. Killing Charlie Kirk did not make Tyler Robinson happy nor did it bring him into an imagined utopia or better nation. This henious act has conjured fear, confusion, unease, hot tempers, and host of other unsavory things over the last 5 days. This is the way of idols, of high places. They kill, steal, and destroy. Sound familiar? If America does not turn away from political idolatry on both sides of the aisle, ideologic idolatry, and violence – I fear her fall will be great, and swift. I write this as a warning and with a heavy heart. I also caution the political Right, and all of us, not to make martyrs out of this terrible situation. I believe it will do more harm than good. Our idols are killing us!

Where Do We Go from Here?

The good news is we get to choose. America must reject the high places built from political and ideologic idolatry, and violence! We must reject the division they have so successfully sown in our political parties and our everyday lives! We must reject violence in all its forms! We must reject media that peddles such things. We must start talking to each other again, civilly, and seek to understand another’s perspective, not “one up” them or “win the argument.”. We must rethink some of our most pressing social issues – not as adversaries but as friends, neighbors, Christian and non-Christian alike helping one another solve problems in our communities – neither the police nor the federal government need to do this for us. In serving these idols, we have abdicated our responsibility to our government. How is that working out for our communities?  When we reject idolatry, evil is defeated – it suffocates and dies.  America must tear down her high places of political idolatry, ideologic idolatry, and violence! Let them suffocate and die! When we do, we won’t see young men like Tyler Robinson or Devin Kelly killing people for ideologies that can’t and won’t save their souls. There won’t be shootings at colleges or secondary schools. There won’t be attempted or completed assassinatins. There won't be the fear of dying for speaking at an event or writing a piece for a newspaper or a blog and becoming a target. There won’t be racism, white supremacy, Nazism, Communism, or any type of radical politics out in the open or in our mainstream society because they will know we will not worship their god nor tolerate their evil. Our schools will be safe again. Our streets will be safe again. Our gatherings will be safe again. Our country will be safe again and a beacon to the world! We will be better than great, we will be whole and united once again!

What do you choose America, ruin or rebirth?

Deuteronomy 30:15,19

I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction….This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.

With a heavy and hopeful heart,

Elizabeth

*For more on idolatry see my blogs, America, You Might be Worship Mammon If….. ; America’s Multiple False Gospels series; Oh Wait, That’s an Idol Too; and A Lament for the American Church.