As I drove to work last week, I enjoyed idyllic Ohio fall days–pleasant temperatures, blue skies and smiling faces upon arrival. If only I could turn off the outside pictures–the vicious attack on Israel (which includes many American hostages and deaths), the dysfunction in Washington DC, the continued market turmoil from a high interest rate environment, the division even in America of students shockingly protesting against Israel, blaming Israel for the violence of Hamas. But I can’t turn off the pictures. And neither can you.

Most sane Americans lament the deep division in society (and it’s not just in America), but this is a whole new level of division. Politically it is not just D’s vs R’s–the simmering inter-party wars have jumped to the surface–the fissures are deepening within not just between party lines. Media hog Matt Gaetz was able to successfully defenestrate Speaker of the House McCarthy–with no plan of a way forward. And worse, no concern that he (along with seven others) threw his party and the country into a state of chaos. Everything he says he believes in (cutting spending, return to regular order, etc) are now much harder. Politically, there is a reason why every single Democrat joined the eight Republican turncoats. There is now no hope of achieving anything on the budget, and 2024 Republican chances are now reduced. What Republicans on the so-called right (they’re certainly not conservatives) fail to recognize is that in a constitutional republic, politics is all about addition and not subtraction. The Republicans need more voters, more elected Republicans, to have any chance of effecting policy. And these eight just did their best to make that prospect worse. Yet what is optimal for the social unit is often sub-optimal for the individual. And we have few statesman left. Certainly not the very small man Matt Gaetz. We should not expect the Democrats to bail out Republicans, but could not even a few have put country over party?

Interestingly, the Democrats have their own fissures exposed. While they often like to falsely say the Republican party is just a party of white supremacists, the Democratic Party has a not small wing of rabid anti-semites. That loathsome attribute came to the fore with the attack on Israeli civilians by Hamas, and the resulting open rejoicing by progressive students and the immediate condemnation of Israel by the squad. Yet Mr. Biden finally found something to stand up to the progressives about, with a harsh rebuke of the squad coming from his press secretary, calling their remarks “repugnant.” Unfortunately, not to be outdone in tone-deafness, Donald Trump managed to petulantly condemn Benjamin Netanyahu at precisely the time of Israel’s need for the world to unite behind their fight for survival. But what did we expect about a man who sees everything in terms of are they uncritically on my side or not? Mr. Trump’s remarks (which arguably praised Hezbollah) naturally drew rebukes from his Republican opponents for the presidency. Fissures indeed. And you can peruse the headlines to see more and more.

So what should a Christian think about this? The immediate response by many Christians when Israel is attacked is to think of end times. At some point, this will certainly be true. But I don’t think we need to have any eschatological view in mind to assess the fissures we see. We know that ever since the Tower of Babel, God has created differences in people groups and cultures precisely so that humanity would not be united in its rebellion to God. Yet our common rebellion against God does not eliminate our core need for seeking the transcendent–we exchange the glory of the incorruptible God for an “image in the form of corruptible man, of birds, of four-footed animals and crawling creatures.” Our idols may be a prophet, or the Earth, or political leaders. But God has put eternity in our hearts and we will worship. Yet in the post-Babel world, we worship different idols, and they conflict with each other. It is only because of God’s common grace that the evil within humanity is constrained. When we see the fissures emerge, it may seem that God is losing control, but our theology tells us that “not a sparrow falls to the ground apart from God’s will.” And we know that God causes all things to work together for good, to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. So even in these wicked days, Aslan is on the move, so to speak. For the Christian, it is a reminder that this world is a temporary home, that we are pilgrims in this world, and we seek a new heavens and a new earth. We put not our trust in kings, in whom there is no salvation. For those that are not believers, this is actually a grace of God–a reminder that there is no salvation in the Gods of this world, that there is no peace aside from the Prince of Peace, and “the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” When all the gods of this world fail, perhaps in God’s grace eyes will be opened to turn to Him. Pray for God’s peace in this world; pray that He would restrain the evil in this world.