Whitlock: Highland Park massacre a reminder that only God can resurrect America

It feels like America died yesterday. Dead on the Fourth of July.

That’s how it felt Monday when I learned a gunman killed six and injured at least three dozen more during an Independence Day parade in Highland Park, Illinois.

What was born on the Fourth of July – a system of governance predicated on the belief that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with unalienable rights – died on the Fourth of July. For 246 years, that belief united the states of America. That belief is gone now. It’s been eradicated from the minds of too many Americans for this country to remain whole.

The United States of America has been balkanized, polarized, and demonized to the point that we can no longer joyfully and unapologetically celebrate our birthday.

The New York Times, the nation’s alleged newspaper of record, claims the real founding of this country was in 1619 and the real motivation was slavery, not freedom. ESPN, the worldwide leader in sports, published a piece Monday denigrating the Fourth and arguing that a three-hour riot at the Capitol, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the demise of Colin Kaepernick’s NFL career, Jack Del Rio calling January 6 a “dust-up,” and Justice Clarence Thomas’ objection to same-sex marriage prove America’s irreparable wickedness.

Half the country sees the American flag as a symbol of oppression and pride as a virtue.

We’re dead. Dead on the Fourth of July.

Robert Crimo, a 22-year-old kid arrested for the Highland Park shooting, allegedly ended what 46-year-old Crispus Attucks started on March 5, 1770. Accurate historians won’t credit Crimo with America’s death. The autopsy will show that the greatest experiment in human history succumbed to the cancer of cultural rot and the rejection of biblical truth. Highland Park, Uvalde, Waukesha, the summer of George Floyd riots, the COVID lockdowns, the family-friendly drag queen grooming, the New York Times 1619 Project, Trump derangement, critical race theory, and the vilification of law enforcement are all byproducts of the cultural decay.

Those of you hoping midterm elections will save this country will be greatly disappointed. Politics cannot fix what’s wrong with America. There are no political solutions to spiritual problems.

America is in need of a resurrection, a miracle, a spiritual rebirth.

Our current culture will continue to manufacture Robert Crimos the same way factory assembly lines produce SUVs. American culture is narcissistic by any means necessary and views the right to kill as fundamental to freedom.

The alleged killer Crimo sought attention and worth through the celebration of death. Like the Waukesha alleged mass murderer, Darrell Brooks, Crimo fashioned himself a rapper. Using the name “Awake,” Crimo rapped inside a classroom and insinuated he might one day shoot schoolchildren. YouTube has taken down his content.

Why?

Crimo’s rap content is no different, no more demonic, than the standard commercialized and celebrated rap music. A rapper in Florida, YNW Melly, sits in jail today waiting to be tried this summer for two cases of premeditated murder. Melly’s most popular song, which has more than 500 million views on YouTube, is "Murder on My Mind." It’s every bit as wicked and demented as Crimo’s rap content.

Crimo and Melly simply mimic the content of rap music’s biggest stars. Watch Dr. Dre and Ice Cube’s "Natural Born Killaz" video. Watch Snoop Dogg’s "Murder Was the Case." It’s an ode celebrating the deal Snoop cut with Satan. Watch 50 Cent’s "Many Men." It celebrates a revenge killing.

American culture is sick and depraved.

Educators are fighting for the right to talk with 5-, 6-, and 7-year-olds about sexuality and gender. An adult talking about sex with kids was considered perversion in my childhood. Now we’re bringing drag queens into schools and libraries to teach kids to read. The people who object to this perversion are deemed villains.

The rejection of religious faith has empowered a culture of fear. We shut down the country because of COVID, a bad version of the flu. We denied kids an education because of COVID. We forced kids to wear masks and avoid interaction because of fear of COVID. We stole two years of their childhood out of fear.

American culture is sick and depraved.

Elle Duncan, an ESPN broadcaster, released a video encouraging so-called “girl dads” to fight for abortion rights. She argued that women’s freedom is directly related to their access to abortion. Modern American culture is obsessed with murder. It’s reflected in our music, our TV shows, our perception of freedom.

We have rejected God’s natural order.

This nation’s founding documents were based on God’s natural order. This country was built for families. Family is at the center of a biblical worldview. The Founding Fathers could not predict that this country would abandon God’s prescribed family structure – man, woman, and children. How could they see that future?

In the 1700s, family was essential to survival. Men and women absolutely needed each other for survival. We still do. But we’ve convinced ourselves that we don’t. Technological advances have fooled us into believing that families are luxury items. Before the industrial revolution, when most work was backbreaking and hunting and farming were necessary for eating, women believed men were necessary and a force for good. The laws and customs established during that time frame reflected man’s essentialness to survival and woman’s essentialness to reproduction.

Two hundred years later, we look back and call those men and women unenlightened. Were they? I’m not so sure.

As it relates to family, we’re far more unenlightened than the founders. We don’t believe in family. We think it’s optional and unimportant. We think there’s no penalty for killing a child in the womb or walking away from a marriage when things turn difficult.

We think the Second Amendment, which grants us the ability to protect our rights, is destroying America. The destruction of family and the abandonment of God are destroying America.

The attack on God, family, and guns killed America.