Fruit that Remains: The Power of Salvation and American Individuality | Guest Blog by Jessica Rubi Greer
Jessica Rubi Greer moved to Tucson, AZ from San Francisco, California 2002 to attend the University of Arizona. She has been saved for nineteen years, married for thirteen years and has three children. She is a certified high school social studies teacher, who has been writing about history, politics, culture and Christianity for the last eighteen years.
“Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
Culture in Crisis
As the media assumes power over information, these outlets are quickly becoming the totalitarian gatekeepers of “truth.”
The rhetoric surrounding the Equality Act as a representation of America’s diverse citizenry (when, in truth, only about 5.6% of Americans identify as LGBT) makes the absurdity of the bill quite clear. At the same time, this proposed legislation exploits “trans children,” using them as a form of political currency.
Along with steadily increasing minority power over the majority, President Biden’s identity hero, Dr. Rachel Levine, was federally confirmed as the first “trans” Assistant Secretary for Health.
Levine (born Richard Levine before transitioning into a “woman” in 2011) has become increasingly controversial, advocating reassignment surgeries for underage youths who claim they are transgender. In true leftist fashion, the support for the castration of children (which has long been considered a human rights violation according to the United Nations) is now being praised as progressive protection for “trans” minors.
As if denying biological fact were not enough, the far-left policies that began with Roe v. Wade to legalize abortion as a last resort to preserve a mother’s health have since mutated into something so aggressive that in Democrat-controlled states like New York, women have the legal right to terminate a child at full term. The newspeak, as Orwell would have termed it, has shifted from “pregnancy termination” to “women’s healthcare.”
In December 2020, The Atlantic published a piece titled “The Last Children of Down Syndrome: Prenatal testing is changing who gets born and who doesn’t; this is just the beginning.” The article lightheartedly discussed how abortion might be considered an advanced form of preventive medicine.
The story details Denmark’s prenatal healthcare initiative that involves screening all pregnant mothers for a potential child with Down Syndrome, and thereby eliminate as many children with this disability as possible. As a result of the screening, more than 95 percent of mothers chose to abort. In 2019, only 18 children with Down Syndrome were born in that country.
“Continuing down the path of ideological destruction, we next encounter one of the left’s most insidious campaigns yet, Critical Race Theory...”
Continuing down the path of ideological destruction, we next encounter one of the left’s most insidious campaigns yet, Critical Race Theory and the purging of whiteness in the name of progressive retribution.
Far-left ideas that were once were merely fringe political perspectives hiding in pseudo-academic departments with titles such as Gender Studies have now spawned this postmodernist Marxist theory of race and intersectionality. This most narrowing of ideas argues that everything in society is both political and a Marxist struggle, and advances the belief stating that “whiteness” has caused inequality rooted in internalized racism and has embedded systems of oppression so deeply that you might not actually see it manifest itself.
In fact, the lack of evidence for the claim that racism, misogyny, classism, and homophobia exist throughout every aspect and strata of American society only proves that it is so problematic we cannot even point out multiple examples!
While disagreement over issues deemed political continues to polarize American citizens, the fact remains that these hot-button topics have far-reaching detrimental effects on American liberties. While The Atlantic excitedly discusses eugenics as if it were the next mission to land on Mars and the Democrat squad displays histrionics while advocating for child castration and the new multiracial democracy, there is clearly an increase in diametrically opposed views on morality.
“What is it that has caused the American moral landscape so great a shift in so short a time?”
In the year 2000, California, one of the most liberal states in the Union, passed the Defense of Marriage Act outlawing same-sex marriage. 61% of California voters supported this law, but it was repealed. In 2008 it was brought back to the ballot box and California voters again supported the effort to defend the institution of marriage against same-sex marriages.
Finally, in 2013, the Supreme Court overturned the Defense of Marriage Act, forcing a federal law to legalize gay marriage.
What is it that has caused the American moral landscape so great a shift in so short a time? Within the last decade most Americans were flabbergasted to see the high court bullying states into such an abomination, and yet today, we are seriously debating the right of a child to take hormone blockers against their parents’ consent.
The Collective vs. The Individual
Perhaps one of the most effective campaigns waged against classical American principles was that of identity politics. President Obama’s pedagogical elitism had a few lessons for those that “cling to their guns and their religion.” Obama’s woke policies redefined American democratic language while reshaping our fundamental e pluribus Unum national identity.
During his eight years in office, some of the most radical ideologies crept their way into our trending stream of consciousness, inflaming racial tensions, creating massively unamerican solutions for regional problems that did not exist on a national level, and advocating for the very revision of American history.
This was a political compilation of ideologies coupled with the birth of social media and the coming of age of the Millennials. An entire generation of young Americans became radicalized and willing to submit to collective political goals rather than to be inspired to contend for individual purpose.
Socialist language like “equity” replaced “equality,” “collective responsibility” pushed out the Enlightenment’s “common good,” and “individual rights” was tossed for “identity representation” based on race, class, and gender.
“Socialist language like “equity” replaced “equality,” “collective responsibility” pushed out the Enlightenment’s “common good,” and “individual rights” was tossed for “identity representation” ”
Students were activated as social justice warriors. Shunning any opposing narratives in the name of political morality, they were encouraged to think in groups according to the new radical hierarchy of victimization and struggle. They were challenged to lay down freedom of speech for political correctness and challenged to deconstruct America’s transcending Judeo-Christian values in favor of postmodernism’s radical orthodoxy, “regimes of truth,” from a 1960s circle of French philosophers.
The perspective of collective identity wars against American individual rights and responsibility. With the power of big tech, Hollywood, mass media, and political influencers like Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, socialist ideas have become accepted as almost interchangeable with American democratic principles.
Beyond our regularly-scheduled elections that often shift power back and forth between partisan hands, there is a surreptitious underlying movement that promotes a strong current to drift away from the most imperative American democratic ideas about individuality.
The liberties, freedom, and individual rights of all citizens are concepts based on the most fundamental beliefs in philosophies from the Enlightenment and a Judeo-Christian model of truth and justice. Uprooting these liberties and rights would result in a massive devolution of our Democratic Republic.
At the center of American tradition and values lie the virtues and power of individual salvation, without which all else ceases to have any weight or meaning.
Roots of American Principles: Salvation, Equality, and Individuality
Martin Luther’s declaration of his 95 Theses attacking the Roman Catholic Church and its papal authority as sole interpreters of Scripture marked one of the most significant turning points in world history – ushering in the Protestant Reformation.
Luther challenged the Catholic Church after becoming outraged by the abuse of power and the selling of indulgences (a letter or receipt sold by clergy and purchased by parishioners that guaranteed remission of sin).
His arguments not only exposed clerical corruption, but contained the most powerful of revelations: a rediscovered truth which had been buried under power structures and man’s schemes. Luther referenced Scripture directly to prove that all had been justified by the blood of Jesus Christ, that all creatures were invited to have divine relationship directly with Him, and that all men have equal access to God.
No one human holds power over salvation, he declared, but rather each person is individually responsible to work out his own salvation. Luther’s argument #36 states: “Any truly repentant Christian has a right to full remission of penalty and guilt, even without indulgence letters.”
The Reformation was a supernatural event that erupted during an age of technological innovation that enabled exploration of the New World to occur simultaneously with the invention of the printing press. Both would propel the spread of the salvation message and its inherent concept of individual freedom from all human masters.
“Literacy rates skyrocketed as the Bible was translated and printed... Enlightenment concepts of equality and liberty were introduced, democratic revolutions actualized these radical concepts, and slaves revolted and won their freedom.”
Luther’s bold statement caused a chain reaction that birthed the most powerful ideas the Western world had ever experienced. Luther’s teaching of individual salvation reimagined the purpose of even a lowly serf, thus liberating the masses from their station as mere subjects of a king to a privileged position as children of The King!
Literacy rates skyrocketed as the Bible was translated and printed in the vernacular of most European countries. New denominations surfaced, Enlightenment concepts of equality and liberty were introduced, democratic revolutions actualized these radical concepts, and slaves revolted and won their freedom.
The power of individual salvation sent cataclysmic waves throughout the entire globe – a paradigm shift that inspired a new world order. Thus was birthed the most profound experiment of the Protestant Reformation: the United States of America.
From America’s origin in 1620, the Mayflower Compact outlined what would become a covenant between the Judeo-Christian God and a paradoxical rough sketch of a free individual living out a virtuous purpose for the common good. As more Europeans continued to flood into the New World, the British colonies maintained their uniquely distinct principles that were influenced by the Enlightenment and based on biblical morality.
Well before independence was declared in 1776, and well before the ratification of the Constitution in 1788, the Massachusetts Body of Liberties stated in 1641 the rights of individuals within the colony, exemplifying this revealed truth of American individuality.
After the War for Independence began, each colony outlined its own constitution. The Virginia Declaration of Rights and Constitution in 1776 declared that “...all men are by nature equally free and have certain inherent rights.” The Massachusetts Declaration of Rights and Constitution proclaimed in 1780 that “the body politic is formed by a voluntary association of individuals.” The Pennsylvania Declaration of Rights and Constitution preamble succinctly words the American paradox: “Whereas all government ought to be instituted and supported for the security and protection of the community as such and to enable the individuals who compose it to enjoy their natural rights...”
This is not to dismiss the reality of marginalized people groups and the atrocities of slavery which coincided within the newly established democratic society. The contradiction was apparent and was understood as a sin that was growing within the colonies; one which could not be reconciled with the fundamental beliefs and morality of America.
Contrary to the accusations of The New York Times’ 1619 Project, which claims that the American Revolution was motivated simply to preserve slavery, irrefutable evidence exists which proves quite the opposite.
First Chief Justice of the United States John Jay said, “It is much to be wished that slavery may be abolished. The honor of the States, as well as justice and humanity, in my opinion, loudly call upon them to emancipate these unhappy people. To contend for our own liberty, and to deny that blessing to others, involves an inconsistency not to be excused.”
Allan Bloom described the early leaders of the Civil Rights Movement as “true Americans, in demanding the equality that belongs to them as human beings by natural and political right.” Bloom points out that the civil rights leaders based the evidence of their arguments for freedom on the Declaration of Independence and on the Constitution.
Throughout our history, God’s moral laws have motivated Americans to pursue repentance as a means of resolving and reforming injustices. The expansion of civil liberties and civil rights has not been achieved in spite of America’s moral origins, but because of them.
God’s laws are the country’s philosophical and moral center, and that center is based on the salvation of the individual.
Christian Individuality and Influence
“God’s laws are the country’s philosophical and moral center, and that center is based on the salvation of the individual.”
The current popular lies that seek to convince the public that Christian religious expression belongs within the Church and should never bleed out into public life are based on a gross misinterpretation of the concept of separation of Church and State.
Trending opinions that question the legitimacy and credibility of Christians in positions of power have as their goal the undermining of religious influence within American society and politics. Newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett faced a barrage of questions as to how her faith would obstruct her ability to read the law fairly and equally – as if to imply that a person without a godly moral center is more equipped to fairly judge.
The reality is that, while our culture may be in moral crisis, our government and its historical heritage is profoundly Judeo-Christian in nature. The citizens most equipped to defend truth, equality, liberty, and individuality are, in fact, Christians.
The taproot of this nation is the unwavering belief in individual salvation: that God has provided for the reconciliation all of humanity to Himself by offering them the gift of redemption so that they may be one with Him in eternity.
Power, influence, and reform do not come from the authority of the executive office, trickling down from there to the lowly subjects of the land. These forces arise from within the individual, empowered by the salvation message and exercised by responsible and dutiful citizens within our local governments. This is what preserves the independent laws and culture of our cities and states which, along with the checks and balances in the federal branch, maintain our national independence on the global stage.
The political power in this country does not come from a collective identity under a totalitarian narrative. It arises from a united body of individuals joined together in freedom, and this mirrors the Body of Christ.
In the year 1630, John Winthrop’s famous sermon “City Upon a Hill” claimed God’s divine appointment in the New World: “For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world.”
The only fruit of this nation that will remain is that which is borne of the branches that continue to abide in Christ as the Vine (John 15:5). Christians must be compelled by a burden for their fellow citizens to shoulder the spiritual weight and contend for the faith.
Our task must be to reject cultural complicity and instead cultivate strength of character; to use our individual salvation as empowerment to exercise our individual rights and expression; and to purpose ourselves to serve the common good in promoting God’s truth and justice.
Jesus said in John 15:16: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit – fruit that will last – and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.”