This has been happening with alarming frequency: unprecedented, unlawful, horrifying events.  The 2020 election left me staggered. I knew the “reality” of the Biden “win” wasn’t even remotely real and yet there it was. I started pinning my hopes -- thin as they were -- on brave and desperate lawsuits, but little by little we realized that the courts weren’t going to solve this one. So we started looking to the certification process on January 6^th of 2021. Surely sanity would return then.

But the events of that day shook all rational people to their core. The thinking right had no reason to break into the capitol -- the process, if allowed to play out, could very well have put a halt to the Big Steal. But somebody thought the onslaught was worth it, somebody not connected to the conservative movement, and those somebodies have been milking that day ever since.

Not only was the riot a political earthquake, but the aftershocks have been horrific. The arrest and incarceration of people the Left wanted to blame has been something right out of the Spanish Inquisition. No lawyers, no charges, bad treatment -- even torture. Locked in rat-infested dungeons in solitary confinement. No “speedy trial” for these folks; they’re political prisoners. We’re not in Kansas anymore and J6 proved that.

The neverending show trial in the House is another aftershock. Such an illegal tribunal is as out of line as the six interrogations of Christ. No rebuttal allowed, no chance to examine one’s accusers, no witnesses for the defense.  

Not only is the ground shaking in Washington, but the ground at the border has been one continual assault undermining our national sovereignty, decimating our youth with drugs, ripping jobs from the hands of American citizens.  Oh, silly me, is there such a thing as an American citizen? Or are we just subjects?

COVID, of course was a 9.0 quake and we’re still dealing with the tsunami that followed. We daily read about young, vaccinated athletes who have dropped dead mid-game or died in their sleep.  The government-imposed shutdown and vaccination has not only negatively affected both our mental and physical health, but it has destroyed any trust we had left for both the lying government and the medical community. Mostly, COVID gave us a taste for what living in a dictatorship is like. I’d like to see what the history books record about this event in, say, 100 years.

The total fiscal mismanagement of the last year and a half has been another jolt. Yesterday it cost me $60 to fill my mid-size sedan.  A couple of weeks ago I had to pay $15 for a dead chicken. We’re still dealing with supply chain interruptions, so we have to cope with the unsettling reality of empty store shelves, a lack of baby formula (truly horrifying), new cars sidelined by a lack of computer chips. We know this can’t continue, but there’s no cavalry coming to the rescue; no one’s home in the presidential head.

Now we are faced with the unprecedented attack on former President Trump and his Florida home. The snakebite nature of this raid rattled every idea I ever had about our personal freedoms and rights. If they can do this to someone of Trump’s standing in our national community, what can’t they do to each of us? (We know the answer to that by looking at what they are doing to the J6 folks.) No one is safe. Everything I learned in school about how our government worked, and how safe we were from government overreach has gone up in smoke.

So, what do people do who live in an earthquake-prone environment? They fortify their architecture, strengthen their bridges, get prepared for long-term termination of basic services -- water, sewage, food supplies, energy availability, police and fire assistance.

What should America do to prepare for the inevitable shocks to come? There are practical things that need doing:

1. Secure elections -- this involves proving that our elections have been insecure, and fortifying our procedures for future elections. This has to be done fast and it’s good to know that some people are on this -- whether or not they’ll be effective in curbing the deceit remains to be seen.
2. Work at electing the right people.  This seems to be happening, but right now, we’re just looking at primaries.  What will happen when we’re down to wire in November? It will be ugly. We will need poll watchers galore.
3. Work at clearing up the education mess we’re in. We’re spending more money every year for ever-more-dismal results. Looks like our kids are learning more about sexual deviance than they are about math or science, more anti-America, racist attitudes than they are history or literature.

But here’s the rub: We have a nation filled with at least two generations of people who have not been properly educated, who have no respect for the church, no respect for teachers, no respect for parents. We have a nation saturated with drugs, many people addicted because of painkillers, many too young to make sensible decisions about substances they can procure with ease.

Things like the flailing economy can be corrected with the right policy decisions. The border can be fixed with a wall. The crime problem will settle down when we go back to punishing criminals. Most of this isn’t rocket science. It just takes an honest look at human nature (Newsflash: we’re not basically good.) and the application of common sense -- and all that takes time.

Enter God. All good governance comes from a deep understanding -- on the part of both the governing and the governed -- of the reality of absolute truth, i.e. God. Some things are right and some things are wrong and we determine which is which by consulting the only final authority on things moral: the Bible. History is clear on this: the closer a society aligns itself, however imperfectly, to the precepts in the Bible, the more prosperous that society becomes. The opposite is also true. Deuteronomy 28 gives us real clear delineation of what happens to a nation that disobeys God’s commands.

Not only does the God of the Bible deal with us corporately, as a nation, but also as individuals. Even though we cannot control our neighbors’ relationship with God, we can control our own. We can start following His divine instructions -- the book of John is a great guideline.  And we can share what we learn with our neighbors -- this business of not talking politics and religion is not working out so well.  We can speak to school boards. My daughter did that -- went to and spoke at her school board meetings (as a teacher, not a parent) for over a year, pointing out the problems with the district’s early literacy program. She has now been hired by the district to spearhead its change to brain-research based teaching methods, which include a beefed-up return to phonics. It can be done.

I also depend a great deal on prayer. God doesn’t want goodness to fail and has promised His people, whether Israel or the church, that He will listen and follow through. We’re seeing that happen over and over again right now, so those of us who pray need to be doing so consistently and powerfully. For those who don’t pray, join us. It’s a truly exciting journey. 

Deana Chadwell is an adjunct professor and department head at Pacific Bible College in southern Oregon. She teaches writing, logic, and literature. She can be contacted at dchad_02@charter.net.

Image: Goya