Unless you’ve been in a coma for the last several years, you have no doubt become acutely aware that we have been lied to. In the spirit of “go along to get along” (i.e. compromise) the once great U.S.A. has given itself over to a very small percentage of the population who wish nothing less than total control over the rest of us.
The list of empirical examples is almost endless — 2016 election aftermath, 2020 election fraud, COVID response, woke ideology, social media censorship, etc., etc.-but without taking the time or the space to list everything, let’s focus attention on how compromising has gotten us to where we are.
The very practice of politics has been called “…the art of compromise.” That saying is attributed to Otto von Bismarck, a 19th-century German Chancellor who was instrumental in the Reunification of Germany at that time. (Winston Churchill, among others, is also sometimes credited with that phrase.)
What Bismarck actually said was: “Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable, the art of the next best.”
A proper definition for compromise is: to adjust or settle differences by mutual concession*; to find or follow a way between extremes; to make a shameful or disreputable concession; to solve by arbitration. (*concession: to give in)
Compromise is also considered as part of pragmatism, which is the practical as opposed to the idealistic, or a practical approach to problems.
Political discourse in a democracy is often regarded as compromise, but we are not a democracy. We are a constitutional republic. Our system consisting of three co-equal branches of government that The Founders intended to function as a method of checks and balances has been infiltrated with those who use our very freedoms to work to destroy that balance. Trying to appease everyone, to make compromise pragmatic, has only resulted in excessive overreach. One of the best examples is the attempt to implement the Green New Deal.
As Christians, we have a lot of examples of the dangers of compromise and how to avoid it.
Starting at the very beginning, Adam and Eve accepted a compromise (which was a lie…) that lead them to believe that partaking of what was forbidden wouldn’t cause real harm (Gen 3:1-7)
In 1 Samuel, chapter 8, when Israel wanted to be like other nations and have a king instead of judges, God allowed it. The compromise led to centuries of good kings and bad kings, with a lot of grief and turmoil in the process.
At the start of Christ’s earthly ministry, He was offered a series of compromises that involved sustenance, safety, and success, by Satan. Christ countered each attempt with truth from God’s word. The Spirit prevails when the truth isn’t compromised.
Unending compromise, from the secular world as well as even the church, has created what we’re dealing with now. We didn’t notice it right away. After all, it is easier to avoid conflict than rush headlong into a fight. What we’ve created is a sense of entitlement upon dependency. More succinctly, think of the old analogy of a frog in slowly boiling water.
Remember that all politics really do begin locally. School boards and town councils are starting to understand where all the overreaching compromising has gotten them. It was Aldous Huxley who said: “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” People have had enough of the results of compromise. We can and will survive the results of “…shameful or disreputable concessions…”.
We start by knowing we’ve made the mistake of compromise with the Left, with the woke activists, with church leaders who want to appease the world. Start by saying “No! Enough!” before we’re not even free to do that. And always be aware of what is going on around you, regardless of what you’re being told.
In closing…
Check out “Dear Americans: You Were Duped” by Laura Hollis (Townhall.com 5/25/23)
Also…
Prov. 14:12 “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
Prov. 25:8 “Go not forth hastily to strive, lest thou not know what to do in the end…”
