A noose is hidden for him on the ground; a trap lies in his path. – Job 18:10

Today’s Scripture Reading (June 8, 2018): Job 18

The United States is no longer the leader of the Free World. I know, these are fighting words. Don’t get me wrong, the United States ranks among the most powerful nations of the world, but the nation can no longer really be called free. In 2015, a Breitbart article listed the United States as ranking twentieth on the freedom index, and the only English speaking nation to be listed outside of the top ten. In a more recent poll, the United States didn’t even make the top twenty. Freedom House recently marked the United States decline in freedom as a troubled democracy that needed to be watched. “The media and the judiciary—both of which have a long history of independence—face acute pressure from the Trump administration, whose smears threaten to undermine their legitimacy.”

But it was a conversation with a friend that drove the loss of freedom in the United States home (or maybe the possibility that the United States was never truly a free country). My friend, okay, many of my friends, are sometimes offended by what I have to say on the subject of guns. Sometimes I think they misunderstand me. I have nothing against the possession of guns, but I am not sure that gun possession should be considered a right in the modern world. If you want to possess guns, you need to understand that guns are a responsibility, not a right. For my friends, the possession of firearms is a right protected by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. And I understand that. What caught me off guard was some of the reasoning that people still hold as the answer for why the possession of firearms must be protected. My friend drove home the point. The people must be armed so that we can overthrow the government if the need ever arises.

I understand that that was part of the original understanding of the Second Amendment. The United States had just wrestled control of the nation from King George III and the United Kingdom. Democracy was a grand experiment, and there was a fear that it would fail and that the United Kingdom would reassert control over the nation. And there was no standing army. And so it was necessary for the populace to be armed. But none of that is true today.   

Here is what I believed until recently was true in the United States, as it is true in several other countries. We live in an environment where every four or five or six years we get a chance for a bloodless revolt. There is no need to take up arms against the government; we have the right to vote them out of power. Democracy in the cultural West is a way of life; it is no longer an experiment. The only weapon that I need is my vote. Others may disagree with me. But I do not have the right to take up arms against their choice any more than they have the right to take up arms against mine. Guns are meaningless in the struggle for power in a truly free society. The ability to take up arms against the government is proof of a lack of freedom.

Bildad talks to Job about the traps that threaten to ensnare the wicked, and the noose that is hidden in the ground. His point is that Job has been ensnared and that the noose is drawing tighter because he refuses to see the error in his ways. But the problem is that traps exist for all of us, not just the wicked. And in his conversation with Job, Bildad has actually become ensnared, and the noose is tightening around him. He has taken a common understanding and assumed that, in relation with Job, he has the right to speak for God. But the reality is that Bildad continues to lack understanding, and his voice does not echo the voice of God.

Common things and understandings can often become traps used to ensnare us. Some of the things that we hold most dear are a noose around our neck if we are not willing to listen to another point of view. (Bildad is proving that he is not willing to listen to Job.) And that is a problem.

A United States population, armed for a potential overthrow of the government outside of the current election cycle, is no different from the military dictatorships of Egypt, Thailand, and Zimbabwe. As long as this is the reality, the United States cannot be seen as truly free. The population is unwilling to depend on free elections for its government. Instead, they have fallen into the trap of their own making, and have proven to be unwilling to take part in the conversation.

And, as a result, the free world is forced to wait for a new leader to emerge.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 19