No, this is not a spelling error. I am not talking about the Rapture, in which some Christians believe that the righteous will be taken up into heaven, while the rest of us will remain on earth to face various tribulations. Instead, what I am talking about is important, though not quite as important as the Rapture, so I did capitalize the word − if only to distinguish it from a hernia.

What I am talking about is the Rupture:

● It represents not the End of Days, but the End of Daze – when the political and spiritual deterioration of our beautiful country has reached the point that even the most somnolent, unaware, and unfocused of us, no matter how distracted they may be by electronic devices, can no longer ignore the painful reality.

● It represents not the End of Times, but perhaps the end of America as we knew it and − at least some of us − loved it.

● It represents not the beginning of the Tribulation for the unrighteous, but an extremely troubling time for all of us.

● It represents not the separation of the righteous from the unrighteous, but the separation of the people who still hold fast to Judeo-Christian and American values from those who do not.

● It represents the cracking of our nation into two fundamentally incompatible factions − those who still consider themselves Americans − and those who now consider themselves “citizens of the world.” The first are proud bearers of a great tradition; the second are carbon-based life forms.

● It represents the separation of our people into two disparate groups − those who still feel themselves bound by the obligations of citizenship, including the obligation to fight and if necessary to die to preserve our freedom − and those whose loyalty (if any) is to some vague, distant “international community,” which does not exist, and therefore demands precisely nothing from its adherents.

● It represents the fissure of our country into two opposing groups − those who believe that the rights and privileges of citizenship come with obligations − and those who view the Capitol dome as a gigantic piñata, which they have the inalienable right to keep hitting until the goodies run out, which is in the process of happening even as we speak.

● It represents the division of the population into two contrasting parties − those who still treat their flag with respect and feel a tingle when the “Star-Spangled Banner” is played, and who actually remember enough of the words to join in the singing − and whose who view the flag as a meaningless or even fascistic symbol, and view our national anthem as an outmoded custom to be endured before the start of sporting events.

● It represents the tearing of our populace into two incompatible fragments − those for whom loyalty is vital, and the struggle against tyranny is crucial, so they support friends and oppose enemies − and those who blame America for all the ills of the world, so they reward enemies and abandon friends, a sure way to have more enemies and fewer friends.

● It represents the ripping of our society into two opposing groups – those who feel their first obligation is to their own people’s wellbeing – and those who want to invite in unlimited numbers of immigrants who take away jobs, places in school, and seats in clinic waiting rooms that are already in short supply.

● It represents the cleaving of our civilization into two irreconcilable factions – those who see the safety of their own citizens as their highest concern – and those who squander their compassion on criminals and terrorists while trying to understand what they imagine to be “legitimate grievances” and “root causes.”

● It represents the splitting of our people, especially our leaders, into two basically hostile groups − those who see themselves as bearers and transmitters of a precious heritage of individual rights based upon the Bible, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution − and those who aim to achieve “social justice” by redistribution of wealth according to socialist principles, but who ignore the creation of wealth in the first place.

● It represents the rupture of our people into two necessarily antagonistic groups − those who see the world in moral terms, based on the teachings of the Bible − and those who see the world in economic terms, based on the teachings of Marx.

No nation is so strong that it can resist indefinitely the forces of globalism pulling it apart. Walk into a clothing store, a shoe store, an electronics store, or a hardware store, and try to find articles made in America. Everyone can’t make a living processing information, if no one is producing anything about which to process information. Life is not a video game − electronic images may mimic reality, but they cannot substitute for it. Spending hours on Facebook and Twitter is not a substitute for actually doing something.

No culture is so strong that it can resist indefinitely the forces of multiculturalism pulling it apart. As Europe is discovering to its dismay, democracy cannot coexist with tribalism; pluralism cannot coexist with religious fanaticism; feminism cannot coexist with burqas; and human rights cannot coexist with forced marriages, “honor” killings, and female genital mutilation.

No economy is so strong that it can resist indefinitely the destructive forces of takers who believe themselves entitled to benefits merely by breathing, combined with spenders who spend themselves and their nation into bankruptcy. We imagine that China and the other holders of our debt will wait forever, or at least until it is convenient for us to repay them. But they will call our loans when it is least convenient for us, and when we are at our weakest. Why didn’t we know that?

The Rapture hasn’t happened yet. If we believe it will, we can try to conduct ourselves in a righteous manner. If we don’t believe that, we can try to do the same. In either case, everyone benefits.

But the Rupture will surely happen if we don’t act now to reestablish the belief in ourselves as responsible for our own actions, and the belief that our nation has a unique role to play in the world.

In the Rapture, some hope to be taken upwards. In the Rupture, we can all expect to go in the opposite direction.

In the image at the start of this column, is the sun rising or setting? It depends on what we do now.

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Contact: dstol@prodigy.net. You are welcome to publish or post these articles, provided that you cite the author and website.
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