“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?  But I, the Lord, search hearts and examine secret motives. I give people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve”~ Jeremiah 17:9-10 NLT

 The evening news has become a never-ending loop of men and women, punching, kicking, screaming obscenities, pepper spraying and throwing urine on complete strangers in what they claim is an effort to end fascism and racism in America.

 Seriously, we are being gaslighted. 

The rioting and looting going on across America has nothing at all to do with ending racism and fascism. Let’s be real. No one actually likes white supremacists; even regular racists find white supremacists to be a bit much. As a result, their numbers are simply too insignificant to be any kind of a real threat to democracy. And because just about everyone hates them already, their demographic is not exactly expanding at a terrifying rate.

 The math proves my point.

 Both organizers of the event in Charlottesville and the media have described the white supremacy rally in Charlottesville as “massive”. These folks point out correctly, that the rally drew white power groups from all over the country. That said, pretty much every observer has agreed that this “massive” rally attracted several hundred racist/fascist/white supremacists at the very most.

 Okay so, the rally in Charlottesville drew racist-fascist freaks from all over the country and all those clowns could manage to scrape together was a couple of hundred people? America is a nation of roughly 323 million people. Two or three hundred bigoted kooks waving confederate flags in the blazing sun barely qualify as a movement, let alone a flourishing movement in the context of a nation of 323 million people.

 It’s just not about race.

 Nor is the never-ending stream of cursing, tearing down statues, spitting on people, pepper-spraying and chucking urine at anyone wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat or tee shirt really about Donald Trump or his policies.

 Intellectually honest people have to admit that Donald Trump hasn’t done anything worth freaking out over. Donald Trump has not opened a single concentration camp, started a nuclear war with Europe, murdered an immigrant on live television or taken food from the mouth of a food stamp recipient while cackling manically. Nor has he drunk the blood of—well, anyone—despite the fevered forecasts of our lefty friends.

 Unknowable motives aside, Donald Trump hasn’t DONE a single thing one would not reasonably expect from any other Republican President; aside of course, from sticking his foot in his mouth at predictable intervals and sending out questionable tweets at odd hours. That said, I think we can all agree that saying and tweeting stupid stuff is hardly worthy of impeachment and/or imprisonment (as some have called for).

 Nor is the over-the-top activism about our racist past. I am no fan of Confederate statues or symbols (I once told my son’s friend never to wear a confederate flag t-shirt in my house again). That said, those statues have been sitting in parks and public spaces for decades (including eight years under a Democratic president) and only egg headed professors and a few of the deeper thinkers in the social justice warrior movement cared all that much about the symbolism or even the existence of those statues.

 The current bouts of social unrest are not about any of the things the news media or even the protesters tell us they are about. The unquenchable-dumpster fire playing out on the news every night is really about the depraved condition of the human heart. It’s about angry people who don’t understand why they’re angry searching frantically for a place to vent their wrath. It’s about how the unredeemed and unrepentant love turmoil, violence and senselessly venting their own rage. Social injustice, racism, the Trump administration, Trump voters, and the sins of the past are useful excuses for a generation that has lost its way in every way it’s possible to be lost.

 But before we Christians get too smug and self-righteous we need to remember that as the “salt of the earth” and the “light of the world” we bear a huge burden of the blame for the sorry state of our world. The disaster playing itself out every night is mostly about a generation of young people who have no real knowledge of God and as a result have no cause greater than their own self-interest to believe in.

That’s on us.

It’s the responsibility God’s people to give each generation that comes along a working knowledge of God. Without knowledge of God the only causes believe in are misguided at best and evil at worst. 

 It’s not too late. We are all still here and so there is still hope. Change needs to begin with the family of God. So repent of any sins or inaction on your part and then commit to praying daily for the thugs you see chucking urine at bystanders on television every night. Those people need our prayers a lot more than they need our disdain or condescension. Then get busy. Love a stranger. Tell someone about Jesus. Be the change you want to see in the world.