The Crown Has Fallen

Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us;

look, and see our disgrace!

Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,

our homes to foreigners.

We have become orphans, fatherless;

our mothers are like widows.

We must pay for the water we drink;

the wood we get must be bought.

Our pursuers are at our necks;

we are weary; we are given no rest.

We have given the hand to Egypt, and to Assyria,

to get bread enough.

Our fathers sinned, and are no more;

and we bear their iniquities.

Slaves rule over us;

there is none to deliver us from their hand.

We get our bread at the peril of our lives,

because of the sword in the wilderness.

Our skin is hot as an oven

with the burning heat of famine.

Women are raped in Zion,

young women in the towns of Judah.

Princes are hung up by their hands;

no respect is shown to the elders.

Young men are compelled to grind at the mill,

and boys stagger under loads of wood.

The old men have left the city gate,

the young men their music.

The joy of our hearts has ceased;

our dancing has been turned to mourning.

The crown has fallen from our head;

woe to us, for we have sinned!

For this our heart has become sick,

for these things our eyes have grown dim,

for Mount Zion which lies desolate;

jackals prowl over it.

But you, O LORD, reign forever;

your throne endures to all generations.

Why do you forget us forever,

why do you forsake us for so many days?

Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may be restored!

Renew our days as of old—

unless you have utterly rejected us,

and you remain exceedingly angry with us. [1]

January 6th of this current year was a dark day in the history of the United States. Supposed supporters of a sitting President stormed the Capitol on that day, entering the Senate chambers and even occupying the office of the Speaker of the House. The events of that day were not so disastrous, but the response from those opposed to the President was swift and unprecedented. The House voted in record time to impeach the President—for a second time! He was banned from Twitter and Facebook, which precipitated a purge of multiple conservative thinkers and politicians. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Amazon united to kill off Parler, an increasingly popular site with conservative thinkers who sought to share information.

Democrat senators and representatives unleashed incredible vituperation against conservative senators and congressmen. Conservative thinkers were demonised, and liberal politicians repeatedly suggested the need to create a star chamber, a quasi Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and some even suggested the need for re-education camps where conservatives could be reprogrammed to think “right thoughts.” In short, we witnessed something akin to the Stalinist purges in the Soviet Union, or something resembling the days of the Red Guards of Communist China during the 1960s. What we witnessed echoed Kristallnacht under the national socialists of Germany in the dark days preceding the Second World War. Whatever we witnessed from twisted minds of Big Tech titans differed greatly from the America that most of us had known.

The United States witnessed descent into raw tribalism during the past four years. Broadly speaking, people are being segregated into tribes, either as supporters of former President Donald Trump or as opponents opposed to him continuing as President. Among those opposed to Trump’s presidency are doctrinaire Democrats and others identified as “Never Trump” Republicans who presented themselves as true conservatives. These opponents of the former President are so intent on disparaging him that they are prepared to ignore violent groups that eagerly, persistently seek to destroy the social fabric of the nation.

Thus, we witness the growth of Antifa and BLM, groups that promoted social disorder, fomenting and participating in riots that destroyed vast areas of major cities, destroying the livelihoods of innocent people. Large numbers of people appear willing to encourage the mayhem if they imagined such violence will result in destruction of rational thought. These sentiments moved through a disastrous election that many, even many among opponents of the former President, believed was rigged by fraudulent means to elect a man who appeared to show signs of incipient dementia.

The forces ravaging the United States have not spared us in Canada. Canadians increasingly isolate ourselves into tribes in these dark days. And though the tribes are not necessarily warring at the moment, we appear barely able to avoid precipitating a deadly internecine war. Our divisions are often political, but the fault lines may just as easily separate us by race or language. It is distressingly easy for us to look upon fellow Canadians as “others.” To our detriment, what is taking place in society has to a distressing extent infiltrated into the Zion of Christ. We seem increasingly prepared to treat fellow Christians as enemies because we differ on some secondary issue or another.