This is Pastor Tim’s article that appeared in the Evening Leader on Tuesday, April 23, 2024
There is a movie out in movie theaters that I considered going to see so I could write a review on it. I did not see it, so this article will not be a review. But I have read a little about the movie and I want to offer some insight on what the movie may have to say to us today. The movie is titled “Civil War.” It is set in a slightly future time where the United States has entered into another Civil War over political differences.
The couple of reviews I have read about it says that the movie does not play politics and it does not demonize one side nor does it paint the other side with rosy colors. I find that incredibly hard to believe, but that is what the reviews say. It is actually a story about the resilient and heroic nature of journalists. Ok fine, I haven’t seen it so I’ll take their word for it.
My reason for writing about this is because when I first heard about this movie a few weeks ago, my knee jerk reaction was that this was an incredibly irresponsible movie to make. After considering the topic further, I have changed my mind. This is a fictional story that really means nothing more than any other movie that will be coming out this summer. Are we a politically divided country? Yes, we are. Are we on brink of a second Civil War? Absolutely not. Let me tell you why.
Politically, we are far more divided than we were in the 1860s in the years prior to the actual Civil War. So I am not saying that there is no reason for a Civil War to happen. Many people are angry about what they see going on and for good reason. All of the sacred institutions, values, and beliefs that held us all together have been eroded by secularism. Everybody is a cool agnostic right now so apparently no one is sure whether or not there even is a god at all. How life started, what the purpose of life is, and how humans have both the capacity for incredible good and diabolical evil are just questions we don’t ask any more. When you take something as valuable as purpose away from a person, then all they are left with are their base desires. The only thing that motivates people who have no purpose is food, sex and entertainment. Does that sound familiar?
In order to even have a Civil War, people have to care about something enough to give their lives for it and I just don’t believe we are a country that feels that way about anything anymore. We don’t have a border, the loudest voices in our culture are saying things that are borderline psychotic, and we live in active denial of both our own life and the Author of Life Himself.
If we were to have another Civil War, the people who would have to fight it are not people like me, I am too old to be a soldier. It would have to be the people in the age bracket of late teens to early 30s who fight it. Do you see any grit or determination from people of that age group that makes you believe they would die for a cause? Let me give you an anecdotal example. A few days ago, I was walking through a group of kids who were a part of an organized event that was going on. The leaders were leading a game of 4-square. If you don’t know what 4-square is, it is an active game that requires bouncing a ball inside of the opponent’s square and getting them out. It is a fast-paced game that usually involves a lot of arguing. It is a lot of fun. Probably 6-7 kids were rotating playing the game with an adult leader. Easily three times that many kids were sitting on a nearby couch scrolling their phones and they were dead silent. They were not speaking to each other and not one of them made any attempt to say anything to me or even acknowledge I walked up to the couch. I even told the group to quiet down as a joke and not one of those kids even heard what I said.
That is the group who would be most engaged in fighting a Civil War and that is why I am telling you that we are not on the brink of it happening. Let me be clear, I do not want a war and I thank God everyday that we are not going to be fighting one. Having said that, I wish we were going to have peace for a better reason than this. I wish we were going to have peace because we all shared culture, beliefs and values together where we listened only to voices saying things that were good for us and trusted our government because it was good. I am the world’s greatest advocate for peace, I just wish we had peace for a better reason.