I honestly cannot remember when I wrote this essay last year. I found myself carrying the weight of the country; those first six months were a heavy burden to carry on the mind, heart, and spirit. Sometimes praying it through helped ease the grief and fear, and sometimes I could only take to the page to write about what needed to be released. I assume this was one of those nights.
I’m bringing this back to the surface from the archives in 2026 because I believe that we could use a reminder. Our current reality would like us to accept that this “takeover” of our society is a Goliath that can’t be tamed. That might be true. The systemic intricacies of the symbolic Babylonian empire are centuries old. The Bible tells us there is nothing new under the sun. The Playbook of P25 and the current regime are not new plays the world has never seen. We’ve been here before; in this country, in our world, in our time.
This time of great capitulation reminds us of an example of the power of silence and how silence becomes consent for sin against God’s people.
Are we sinning against God when we allow others around us to neglect, abuse, and exploit others around us? Are we sinning against God when we decide to “mind our business” when someone else is being harmed? Are we sinning against God when we lend our voices to those who knowingly aim to dismantle, disarm, and destroy the unity, peace, and hope of a nation of people?
I ask this because we live in a self-identified Christian nation.
Whose silence is sin?
On which side of power does that silence fall?
In which rooms is it exercised?
What influence, protection, or position makes speech costly, but necessary?
This is not about those who have been silenced by fear, trauma, or threat. It is about those who invoke Christ while using Scripture to justify manipulation, domination, or indifference to suffering. It is about the willful choice to remain quiet when conscience, faith, and proximity make responsibility clear.
This essay can have a bit of heaviness to it. I invite you to read it with courage and not defensiveness. Our posture at this moment in time should be one of faithfulness to our values, spiritual beliefs, and the greatest commandment of all to love the Lord our God, our fellow people, and ourselves. Not OR but AND. When we choose faithfulness, we decide to walk away from condemning each other and walk towards reconciliation and restoration.
Others being empowered by Holy Spirit, like me, have received the word “restoration” for 2026.
Let’s believe in the restoration of our self-agency to surrender to God’s will, lift our voices for the truth and power of the people, and the courage to fight the good fight alongside one another, no matter how things look.
We all have a voice, a calling, a purpose, and an offering to yield. If we do not, I’d argue that that is, in fact, sin.
