Truth in a Culture of Fear and Hate.
The Manipulation of America’s Truth Bearers
By Troy Perkins
Problem, Reaction, Solution - A Familiar Story.
It’s no secret that I’m a Star Wars fan. In the movie, Star Wars Episode III, Revenge of the Sith, the Galactic Republic is crumbling in the midst of an epic war with the Confederacy of Independent Systems under the leadership of a Sith Lord named Count Dooku, a confederacy ultimately controlled by the deceptive (and secret Sith lord himself) Chancellor Palpatine of the Republic. (Those that are not familiar with it, indulge me and those that are fans, bear with me as I explain for others.)
Palpatine had positioned himself as the Chancellor over the entire Galactic Senate through a series of manufactured crises and manipulations using his political influence and had gained emergency powers to fight the very “enemy” that he had stirred up, trained and united against his Republic. It is a classic example of a form of manipulation known in the real world as “problem-reaction-solution”.
In the saga, the systems allied against and attempting to topple the “democratic” Republic, although undesirable, hateful and dangerous cultures and people, did not have the power to be a true threat without the concerted leadership and assistance of the truly evil and secretive Palpatine.
The entire tale revolves around one gifted Anakin Skywalker who is striving to become everything his talents and destiny indicate he is, the most powerful Jedi warrior to have ever been born. The Jedi were a “religious” and respected group of powerful individuals that for ages had used their power and enlightenment to defend all that was good in the galaxy from evil and upheld the Galactic Republic. Anakin struggles from the very start between using his abilities for personal gain and doing what he knows is right as a Jedi.In the third episode of the (six total) films, Anakin finds himself with his master Obi-Wan Kenobi fighting their way in to rescue Chancellor Palpatine from the, albeit controlled “enemy”, enemy nonetheless. Neither Jedi are able to perceive what has really been going on as they have been fully engulfed fighting their enemy for some time. Fighting for what they believe to be the truth. A true “fog of war” exists throughout the created conflict.
In this pivotal scene, the team of Jedi rescuers find themselves face to face with the enemy leader and very powerful Jedi turned evil, Count Dooku, and a fight commences with the bound Chancellor himself looking on, pretending to be happy about his rescue.
Dooku fully believes in his cause against the Republic, the Jedi fully believe in theirs to defend it all while the Chancellor watches his plan unfold perfectly, right before his him, pitting one side against the other. After the count renders the more experienced Obi-Wan unconscious, the powerfully ambitious Anakin beats him down and finally disarms Dooku, driving him to his knees. In a previous episode, Dooku had beaten Anakin down and cut off his hand.
Finally, at the coaxing of the Chancellor, Anakin gains revenge and beheads Count Dooku, in an act not becoming of a Jedi. This act is one of several throughout Anakin’s tale that progressively turns him to the very evil he thought he was fighting through bad or selfish decisions with seemingly good intentions. Before it is all over, he will become worse than what he started out standing against.
Parallels have often been drawn before between this tale that George Lucas wrote into his film saga and true history and even current world events. Lucas has even admitted history’s influence on his scripts. But I would like to point to a little more specific parallel that is not so apparent to us, particularly from a Christian point of view. I would like for you to consider that maybe the Church today is in that scene fighting with a Count Dooku, saber blow for saber blow, just like Anakin was. And like the fictional account, we are headed towards the point when we will have our saber and the enemy’s in our hands with him knelt before us in defeat or possibly the opposite. And like Skywalker, we might have the opportunity to behead him out of revenge instead of justice. But wait a minute, don’t get ahead of me. What about the entire back story involved? Does it apply to our real life situation as well? I propose that not only is it possible that this is the case, but there is great historic precedent that it is.
History’s Boogiemen
Some of them are real, some are not real, some are outright hoaxes and some are real but not nearly as threatening as we have been led to believe. I’m speaking of history’s boogiemen. Most are of the latter variety, real threats but ones that would not be nearly as significant without some help or allowances.
Boogiemen, every good agenda needs one. For Nero burning Rome, it was Christians. For Adolph Hitler, it was Polish border terrorists or a Communist radical that set fire to the Reichstag Building. For President Lyndon Johnson it was North Vietnamese gunboats in the Gulf of Tonkin, the ultimate excuse for the United States’ war in Vietnam. The list is long but the effect is consistent and proven.
So what about America’s current boogieman? It used to actually have a face if you can remember. Osama bin Laden, remember him? You hear the name occasionally now but his mention pales in comparison to his brothers in “faith”. Now the boogieman has been converted into the much broader group of radical Islamic extremists and the trend seems to be becoming all inclusiveness for all of Islam. Am I going to try and tell you that these are not real boogiemen? No, because there does exist in the world real, radical Islamic extremists that do in fact want all “unbelievers” to die. That is a fact. They are a Count Dooku of our very real world and our very real conflict now. They have an ideology of hate for those who would not convert that permeates their existence. But is that all the threat there is?
Terrorism and Tyranny.
Just like Count Dooku and his separatist armies, radical Islam is a real threat. Terrorists do exist and always have. Is the ideology any different now than in the past? Not since the seventeenth century really and probably before that in some form. The goals, however, have changed drastically. By the early 1900’s, Islamism really became a force to overthrow their own governments and return them to the “glory years” of old when their religion and state were one, under the rule of Allah, fundamental rule by force.
Our particular boogieman, although minimized more and more in light of a broader anti-Islam message, is now Al-Qaeda, the world network of radical Islamism. It is no secret any longer that Al-Qaeda arose from the CIA-sponsored Afghan Jihad against the Soviet occupation there where the United States actually aided the enemy of our “enemy”. All indications are that Al-Qaeda operatives have been “handled”, provocateur-ed, and otherwise used by Western government agencies ever since. There is much evidence for this; one just needs to do some research because it’s not talked about in the cable news programs or radio talk shows.
Everything from an agency supervisor “passing” on an opportunity to switch the real 1993 WTC bomb ingredients with fake substances (on tape by the way) to outright FBI higher-up’s orders to stop investigations into Al-Qaeda prior to September 11, 2001 to hijackers living and training at US military installations or living next to agents; the facts are out there that doors are intentionally left opened and individuals are protected along the way. And those are just recent examples. It sounds a lot like Count Dooku in the story mentioned earlier.
The Republic and Believers
So where does that put us? Well, America would be the “Republic” in our story fighting the Dookus of the world. But who is our Anakin Skywalker, the powerful spiritual defender of truth and democracy? I contend our Anakin could be the Church and in particular the “Western” body of Christ.
So what of the other half of the story? The tyrant in the background, manipulating and twisting all parties with their smaller agenda (good or bad) against one another toward his one grand scheme. Oh make no mistake; he’s there today in the real world as well. There is an undeniable hand at work to deceive, distort, kill and destroy down through history. And guess what? This is scriptural. It should be no surprise to a believer that crafty evil is at work in our world through living breathing humans, yet we Christians act as though this is limited somehow to our personal lives with a devil that we cannot see or our only mortal enemies live overseas and only come here to blow things up because our society was so open and unprotected. He also has horns and a pitchfork.
Oh no, he’s real and at work through leaders and events, governments and people, conflicts and agendas. It’s not any one man, politician or radical group of people. Think about it for a minute, this world is all that is left for the one we Christians call Lucifer. Satan’s future is set according to the Bible I read. This is his end game, to take as many to hell with him as he can. Not to get sidetracked theologically, but none of this, of course takes God by surprise, but that’s for another discussion. The Word is also clear that there will be great deception in this world before it is all over and boy is that proving to be the case more than ever now.
The Weapons of this Warfare
So how do we deal with Islam and terrorists? We have already passed into law the most draconian legislation in our nation’s history supposedly to make us safer here. But safe against what? Are we any safer? No. If some crazy fanatic wants to blow themselves up, they are still going to find a way to do it despite every restriction on liberty government can muster. The war in Iraq proves that full military force cannot defend the innocent all the time, in fact it can make things worse. Do we have a missile defense system yet? No! Do we have closed borders to truly control who and what crosses them yet (something that should have been started September 12th, 2001 if the threat was what has been stated.)? No! So what is the “War on Terror” doing besides restricting liberties at home? Killing all those bad guys over there so they won’t come here? That sounds conspicuously like a war without an end to me.
The tendency is the same as Anakin Skywalker’s in the Star Wars story. We want vindication, revenge and to protect and save what we love, at any cost. In that story, Anakin actually becomes the very thing he vowed to fight, with the same desire. And we are poised to end up the same today as the “war on terror” marches on. Supposedly this equals security and safety somehow. A majority of the stories on the News and on talk radio now are a push to focus on Muslims worldwide as the problem and more importantly to continually give up liberties for safety here at home. But if we are to believe the Bible, Muslims are to be dealt with like anyone. Share the truth of the gospel with them. That is not to say that radical Islam can be reasoned with. As an ideology it most definitely can not. But to focus on the Muslim’s religion as the sole boogieman in our crosshairs today is to miss the larger problem and to fall for the trap laid before us by the great deceiver. Remember, most Muslims are individuals needing the love and saving grace of Jesus just as much as anyone.
Where is it Going? Freedom.
So how do we deal with the not so noticed problem of slipping liberty and corruption that, whether we like it or not will affect us all, but more so our children and beyond? If, when faced with the opportunity to behead the evil Count Dooku, Anakin Skywalker would have turned and instead confronted or arrested the deceptive Chancellor Palpatine, the conflict could have ended and he could have taken the true source of the evil to task and Dooku to justice. Of course he would have had to know the truth about Palpatine, who had become Anakin’s friend and mentor before this.
Instead, as many of you know, the story turns dark for the last three episodes as the Galactic Empire rises after Palpatine kills most of the Jedi “rebellion” and pronounces himself Emperor in order to bring “peace and security” to the galaxy out of the chaos. This same kind of “peace and security” was brought to Germany by Hitler after the Reichstag fire and the border “incidents” with communist Polish terrorists. The same kind of “peace” was provided to those living in ancient Rome by the likes of Nero, Herod and Caesar. One could live in relative “peace” and safety in the Roman Empire and even worship like you wanted, as long as you did not question the authorities or happen to be in the way of national agendas. It was a different kind of freedom.
Enemy Without, Within, or Both?
So where does that put America in the story of good vs. evil and in particular where does that leave the bearers and defenders of truth, today’s body of Christ? Are Christians the “Jedi” of our world? We Christians like to ascribe the idea of being the truth defenders and light bearers. Our scriptures indicate if we know who we are in Christ, this is so. Why then do so many in the Church today ignore the most potent scriptures in this regard found in Ephesians chapter 5? Read the first half of that chapter and you find that being “children of light” makes us light bearers that are to “reprove” or “expose” evil. It doesn’t say that we are to just better ourselves through the latest “three step plan” to be blessed and stay out of the conflict around us. But that is what seems to be the trend.
The “retail” focus of modern Christian teaching has become overwhelmingly centered in self-help through inward thought, meditation, experience, and counseling. This trend has undeniably drawn most away from the simple but scriptural antidote of God’s Word guided by the Holy Spirit in the individual’s life and how we are to influence the real world around us. The sufficiency of Christ so plainly laid out in the book of Colossians is nearly secondary in the modern believer’s life, replaced by experiences, entertainment and dependency on the latest church trend sweeping the country or attending the next big conference or event. We’re addicted to spiritual fixes of all sorts.
Such trends have conveniently silenced a once truly “moral majority” in America and effectively diluted the potency of Christian influence on society. This has provided fertile soil for the weeds of evil intent to flourish in America through “lesser of two evil” acceptance and personal blessing lifestyle. We Christians will accept “not-so evil” in place of “more-so evil” partly because we have become too lazy to provide a true alternative and influence politics as a body outside of one of two political parties. We have bought the lies designed to keep an otherwise powerful and holy giant asleep while the enemy throws the ropes over it and ties it to the ground. Or is it worse than that? Have we been harnessed, trained and are we being used to actually assist in a more diabolical plan?
Our Non-involvement = approval
Tyranny never succeeds without enough good people doing nothing about it. In America we had a government unique in history where not only did we influence our government; it was our responsibility to do so in order to keep a check on power. But now we have effectively removed our voice to appear peaceful, gracious and loving, and most of all “patriotic” by not dissenting. Adolph Hitler used this same mentality to his advantage. A study of the early rise of Hitler’s Nazi Germany shows a nationalist Christianity that Hitler understood and used. Millions of German Christians embraced Hitler early on and the feur claimed to be a Christian despite his involvement in occult practices, homosexuality and all the evil he unleashed. Hitler promoted an anti-communism, anti-Semitism and national Christianity that most valued and wanted to be a part of as “patriotic” Germans. And in the name of security and safety, dissent was minimal. Any resistance left was eventually dealt with forcefully by the Nazis legally through “emergency” acts and legislation imposed on Germany in the name of national security after a series of “crises”.
James Madison once said:
“Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; armies, and debts, and taxes are known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.”
History proves this to be the case time and time again yet we act as though we are immune to the result of this evil. This was also the case in the story of Anakin Skywalker with which I have tried to illustrate; that there are plans in play to do evil as well as a plan for good. Our challenge becomes in defining where the enemy that truly threatens us is in order to fight it. The enemy from without is can be defined and can be fought but there remains an enemy within every society, and I’m not referring to those that sneak within our borders to do us harm physically as much as there being a tendency toward accumulation of power that we all are subject to. Those in positions of power experience a temptation most of us will never know. Yet somehow we live as though this threat could not exist or is minimized in America.
Riding the Wave on Home
Of course from a Christian stand point, in the end anyway, the good plan prevails. This is our blessing and this is our curse. God has always told at least someone, something about the outcome of his plan in advance. But scripture does not indicate that the plan involves standing by while evil prevails, just because we win in the end. God’s people have always had a problem understanding this. On the contrary, it is part of who a believer is to fight evil in Jesus’ name, to expose the works of darkness as we are admonished in Ephesians 5. We like to use God’s perspective as an excuse to do nothing, even though we were blessed with a government where we not only can, but have a responsibility to change what might be wrong. The prescription of scripture is to understand God’s perspective but act according to His character as revealed to us in the Word. This is because of our limited perspective and His infinite one. He can act according to His perspective because He is God. We can only act from our perspective as guided by the Spirit of God based on what is revealed to us in His Word. And that is what is expected of a believer. Accepting this truth means ignoring less verses in scripture and acting accordingly. Sitting around because one day after the rapture, God wins, is not the plan.
Anakin Skywalker, in beheading the defeated Count Dooku on his own, admittedly ignored the “way of the Jedi” instead of bringing Dooku to justice for his evil deeds. In doing so, he became a mutation and instrument of the very evil he was fighting, the ultimate weapon of control through fear in the end: Darth Vader.
The Empire rose with the help of a gifted defender of freedom who failed to rely on what he knew was true and just. Instead he became obsessed with saving that which he loved at any cost by listening to the crafty reason of an individual who used empty promises and guided crises’ to insure a problem and a reaction, so that he could provide the “solution”. Anakin did the “patriotic” thing and blindly aligned himself with the Emperor.
In a world where you can’t solve problems of the soul through “democracy” building, we must rely on what we know to be true so that we will not fall into the trap of our own understanding and thus be used in the plan to do evil. Look around, we are becoming more and more restricted at home because of fear, not security and safety. The problem is not what more draconian laws have done to you personally so far, it’s the potential of those laws, that are now on the books, to facilitate control of a once free people in the future when the original purposes of those restrictions are forgotten and blurred.
Wake Up Call
We find ourselves now at a point in our history when what is left of the Republic that was America could decline over night into a nightmare police state if one big incident or attack occurs within our borders. Fear in the public’s mind has been bolstered for many years and accelerated in the time since September 11, 2001 until it dominates every newscast, political speech and the most popular television series’. Make no mistake; our culture is ripe for such a scenario.
American Christians in particular have the solution if we wake up and remember in mass to it soon enough. Our commission is to make disciples of all men, including Muslims, and our national responsibility is to protect the gifts God has given so graciously to us. Both of these goals can only be carried out effectively if the American Christian takes individual personal responsibility and begins to care about the world around them. Wake up first to the idea that those of any religion or race can be saved through faith in Jesus Christ. And secondly that to protect the homeland will require a change back in the direction the founding fathers of our country relied upon and expected us to remember, an informed, involved and armed population ready to responsibly protect themselves, others and the constitution that limited the power of rulers to establish tyranny on our soil. Those, after all were the reasons America was formed.
I thought to myself, “Anakin, surely you can see what’s really going on!”
“The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion” - Edmund Burke 1784
Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
(Ephesians 5:6-16 KJV)
