Civilization or Barbarism? A Christian Perspective

Guest Opinion

By Walt Wood | April 12, 2025

"Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." Our faith begins with confession. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

I have a beef with fellow Christians who ignore the threat of authoritarianism by hiding behind the words: “I am in this world, but not of this world.” It is a simple excuse to avoid responsibility in our struggle to preserve self-governance.

We don’t want to get our hands dirty, arguing that Christ, who makes all things new, will have the final say. It’s a copout and irresponsible—especially in these turbulent times. We, as Christians, need to speak out and participate in opposition to oppressive forces that strive to rule over us.

The ultra-right Republican party is now attempting to do just that, running roughshod over our democratic institutions, attacking freedom of the press, politicizing the military and the Department of Justice, circumventing Congress and the separation of powers, slashing services, and downsizing government as if it was a business.

The federal government is NOT a business. At the time of this writing, our so-called leaders are now openly supporting Russia and cutting off support to Ukraine. To top it off, the administration now intends to deport over 200,000 Ukrainian refugees who are here legally.

Democracy is on the ropes, and the struggle against fascism will continue for years or decades to come. Fascistic barbarism is already visiting the doors of many Americans. Lives are being ruined now and have been for weeks, not only here at home but across the globe.

I call upon Christians everywhere to oppose this unconstitutional criminality with all our strength and skill. But even if we somehow put fascism in the rearview, how do we move forward and become a civilized nation, one that can sustain and promote the general welfare of all our citizens?

Let’s be clear. Ours is NOT a Christian nation. Our nation has shown that the economy is far more important to us than our call to discipleship in Christ. Our blind allegiance to self-serving greed compromises our ability to move forward and create a more perfect union.

We need to improve our Constitution. Perhaps the time has come for term limits for Congress and the Supreme Court. Overturning Citizens United and institutionalizing campaign finance reform are essential steps for the improvement of our republic.

But how do we accomplish these things when those in power, who benefit financially from the system just the way it is, are the very ones who control the implementation of such changes? A Second Constitutional Convention to overhaul the Constitution, while potentially worthwhile, is unworkable and fraught with numerous perils.

The alternative is to embrace autocracy as the only fix to our corrupt, gridlocked government. Let’s remember: Power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Lord, help us realize that our governing document must be defended, maintained, and improved at all cost. There must be a way forward that does not involve an autocratic dissolution of the separation of powers and other protections under the Constitution. We must be civilized enough to overcome our greed and intractability in order to improve our democratic institutions in ways that sustain our nation as a bastion of democracy in the world.

As Christians, we are called to serve the poor, the stranger, the immigrant, the imprisoned, the widow, and the orphan. Our government is a reflection of our commitment to those most desperate for assistance, and we are now failing them. Our government is being destroyed from within. We are living through a Constitutional crisis right now. Wake up!

I fully recognize our inability to reach perfection. That’s not the point and not our job. Only the triune God can accomplish perfection. Yet, we are called to form “a more perfect Union,” and that is a call to which all Christians must respond.

To bury our collective heads in the sand and shirk our responsibilities to one another is to throw away 250 years of the greatest experiment in self-governance ever in the history of planet earth, and quite simply to surrender to tyranny—death to the pursuit of civilization and our American way of life.

We cannot allow this to continue. Stand up, brothers and sisters, raise your voices to the heavens, and make yourselves heard!

Walt Wood is a retired mailman, current Lutheran, and essayist focused on political philosophy and the intersection of religion and democracy.