Good people have had it.

It’s been enough of a decade-long gut punch watching a sizable portion of our nation becoming fully indoctrinated into a stuporous, sycophantic cult of personality of the very worst kind of person our species has produced.

And, it’s been rightly heartbreaking witnessing once reasonable people abandon any semblance of benevolence toward diverse humanity, to find themselves so addled by tribalism that they have declared war on vaccines and trans kids and the electoral process.

And yes, it’s been continually crash-out-inducing, witnessing tens of millions of Americans having their minds slowly poisoned by Kristi Noem, Franklin Graham, and Megyn Kelly to the point they defend sanctioned domestic terrorism and co-sign human trafficking rings.

But perhaps worse than having our family members, friends, and neighbors break out in this ten-year zombie apocalypse flash mob has been watching them invoke love of God and country in the process.

That’s what makes these days so infuriating for us: not merely coming to terms with the prejudices and phobias of those we are daily surrounded by here, but having to contend with their constant projection about the rest of us and their refusal to simply own who they are.

Good people have had it with frauds and pretenders.They’re tired of traitors masquerading as patriots,of the treasonous forever waving the flag,of hateful people peddling a God of supposed love,of human beings sermonizing about the sanctity of life while having contempt for so much of the living,of star-spangled prophets preaching America First while disregarding nearly everyone in America.

Where are the selflessness, generosity, and hospitality that were supposed to mark the lives of people who truly love God and country?Where are lives that replicate the willing embrace of the poor, huddled masses affixed to the very feet of Liberty?Where are the open-hearted people who emulate the radical love of disparate neighbors at the heart of the Gospels?

They’re gone, replaced by immigrant-hating wall-builders, blindly intolerant culture warriors, and violent anti-abortion zealots.

The words patriot and Christian used to cost something to claim. They were labels that once came with the expectation of a modicum of transformation; identifiers that previously required some measure of evidence displayed in one’s altered life.

The flag and the cross were once symbols of higher causes and better angels, visual reminders of who we might be as we embodied our Constitution and our creeds.

For those of us who still treasure nation and/or faith, using these words and wearing these symbols has become more and more difficult, as they now align us with people who embody the antithesis of our ethical aspirations and our moral convictions.

Human beings who earnestly seek a religion expressed in love and those who are burdened to make America worthy of the anthems, find ourselves branded heretics and traitors, and forcibly displaced by these miserable squatters who have taken up residence within them.

And we know how disgusting that is.

We know that true patriots should want all Americans to vote, they should oppose would-be dictators, they should yield to the Constitution, and they should demand a nation that is offered to everyone equally.

We know that actual followers of Jesus should defend the vulnerable, they should give comfort to the sick, should welcome the immigrant, and love the least among us.

And while the masqueraders and pretenders parade around in grand performative acts of love of God and country while willfully betraying both, the rest of us are going to have to fight to hold on to our religion and our nation, and to care for a world that desperately needs authentic people of faith, morality, and conscience who simply live a love that doesn’t need to declare itself loving.

As far as patriotism and faith go, this nation needs the real thing again.

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