These are the times that try men’s faith

These are the times that try men’s faith. 

The greatest nation in history stands on the brink of destruction, and apathy reigns unbounded. The celestial article of liberty has been confused with the infernal commodity of libertinism, and we have smoothed the path to slavery with entertainment, pleasure, and excess. All the armies of Iran, Russia, North Korea, and China combined could not by force displace the American flag with their foul standards. But within our borders, we might happily do the job for them. We have turned the very flames meant to animate the spirit of our independence to ignite its tapestry. Even now, the smoke from that blaze has shrouded the sun. 

Nevertheless, for all these ills, we must never lose our faith. 

The media may lie; our politicians may conspire; the media may conspire to conceal our politicians’ lies. And yet, we must maintain our faith — not in the institutions or men who lie to us, but in the eventual triumph of a righteous cause.

Men who lose faith in the basic principles of right and wrong quickly fall prey to despondency. They lose themselves in a fog of moral relativism and ambivalence.

To be sure, there’s a time and place for questioning — even deconstructing — one’s beliefs to ensure one does not inadvertently stand on the “wrong side of history.” But eventually, it must end. Eventually, one must step into the light at the end of the tunnel.

There’s a difference between unraveling enemy propaganda — the classic “are we the baddies?” trope — and detecting the enemy’s deceit behind every well-established truth, between brief tenures in the valley of cautious discernment and extended stays in the rut of cynicism. If the “red pill” has made us all reside in a state of perpetual disbelief, perhaps the analogy has been overapplied. The only reason we “question the narrative” is that we might eventually discover the truth. If the end result of all our questioning is dead-end pessimism, then the journey has hardly been worth the cost. 

Perhaps the most taxing battle in an age of rampant disbelief and dishonesty is maintaining one’s faith. As society decays, the most counter-cultural hill we can die on is the hill of unwavering belief. If not that one, we may not be willing to die on any hill. For once we lose our faith, once we have plunged to the hellish depths of disillusionment and doubt, the impetus to fight, struggle, and overcome disappears. If everything is a lie, if the all-powerful propagandists have devised even the most basic moral claims, why fight for anything at all?

But, for those who still fight for the light at the end of the tunnel and seek to inspire others to do the same, faith remains vital. In the case of Convention of States, we believe that, while nefarious politicians have corrupted our political system, they haven’t diminished our constitutional tools for redress. Our opponents, on the other hand, appear to think that the rot runs so deep that any attempt on our part to expunge it is bound to end in a hostile, globalist takeover, a doomsday scenario scripted by Satan himself. Realism, it turns out, can coexist with optimism and faith, but an overly paranoid mind is bound to turn every opportunity into a conspiracy waiting to happen.
 
It calls to mind Revolutionary War writer Thomas Paine’s vivid description of a Loyalist “with as pretty a child in his hand, about eight or nine years old, as I ever saw,” who, “after speaking his mind as freely as he thought was prudent, finished with this unfatherly expression, ‘Well! give me peace in my day.’ Not a man lives on the continent but fully believes that a separation must some time or other finally take place,” Paine remarked, “and a generous parent should have said, ‘If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace;’ and this single reflection, well applied, is sufficient to awaken every man to duty.”

Indeed. Faith awakens a man’s sense of duty; fear deadens it. Faith dares him to do the right thing; fear prompts him merely to do nothing. No wonder Jesus said, “all things are possible to him that believeth” (Mark 9:23). 

Surrounded by a thousand evils, beset by a million lies, the question is not whether we think that bad things exist; it’s whether we know that the good things — light, truth, liberty, and righteousness — will eventually prevail. If only we can hold to the persuasion that God will not suffer the darkness to overpower the sun, no critic, naysayer, or faithless fault-finder will be able to sway us from our paths.

It’s easy to be discouraged. It’s easy to let hopelessness stop us in our tracks. What this country needs are brave men and women who dare to do the right thing despite the storm around them.

If that’s you, please sign the COS petition below to support a constitutional solution as big as the problem and get involved to make a difference.