I haven’t lived in the world that long. But I’ve lived in it long enough see a lot of good. I’ve seen people perform secret acts of kindness for absolutely no reward. I’ve witnessed the rendering of countless acts of compassionate care and service. I’ve read of numerous great acts of charity and philanthropy. I’ve viewed many viral videos of wonderful people doing wonderful things for others.

But there is opposition in all things. And, unfortunately, in my short life I have also been a witness to a lot bad in this world. Such terrible things, that even listing them categorically would be a depressing task. I have participated in foreign wars, but if I could speak on one of the most awful things I have witnessed in my now 31 years on this earth, I would speak on the degradation of the core principle that all Christians hang their religion on.

When a lawyer asked Jesus what was the great commandment, His answer was unequivocal:

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40).

The United States has never been a perfect nation. I’m not going to claim that the degradation of these principles began in my lifetime, nor my parents, or even my grandparents. To be honest, the degradation of the first principles of Christianity began long before the discovery of North America.

My purpose is not to point fingers at generations, nations, religions, ideologies, or even circumstances. In fact, finger pointing is one of the major symptoms of the great disease. American society is just so ripe with the disease that I can no longer remain silent on the matter.

What does it mean to be an American? Who among us are the least American? Who are the most American? What is the virtue or duty in voting? Is Democracy good? Communism? What does it mean to be a liberal? Are you one? What is a conservative? Do you identify as a conservative? Are you a Republican, or a Democrat? Can’t stand either? Are you an independent? Moderate? What’s your position on abortion? Gay marriage? The death penalty? Refugees? Immigration?

Many of these questions, and questions like them, aren’t the most polite for casual conversation. But they are questions that Americans talk about. They are the questions that drive the media. What’s more, they are the questions that divide us. They are the topics of conversations that start fights on social media. They are the topics that people are so invested in that they can tear apart families, destroy friendships, and cause massive amounts of stress, anger, and hate toward complete strangers.

But we Americans love this stuff! We can’t stop talking about it! We can’t stop consuming it. We read every article that crosses our news feed, and watch and listen to political pundits talk about all the latest issues. And the more it aligns with our ideological world view the more we like it, and the less it aligns with our world view, the more we hate it.

But when it comes to God, who talks about God? Maybe we have intellectual conversations about the existence of a god. But any mention of Jesus, or Mohamed, well that’s just offensive. Do we share our religious beliefs with our friends? Maybe even your attitude from reading the last couple of paragraphs changed from excitement (positively or negatively charged) to disdain or boredom when you began reading this paragraph?

It’s not fashionable to talk of Christ. It’s not exciting to speak about God. It’s definitely not fun when we have our commandment keeping called into question when all we ever hear any more is “don’t judge me man.” People like to feel like they’re doing all right. Everyone is quick to remind themselves that they’re not perfect and that’s okay, but unfortunately this mantra has been taken to the extreme and has lulled many into a state of complacency.

But what is the first and great commandment? Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, and soul. How can we do that when we get more excited to defend our political beliefs, or read about the latest sleight that the “others” made against “us” than we do about talking about the most important Person in our world, The Person we are supposed to have dedicated our whole hearts, minds and souls to?

And our neighbors? We have made enemies of our neighbors: the liberals, if we’re conservatives, and the conservatives if we are liberals. We either hate them or pity them, cause we surely don’t respect them. We actually vehemently support politicians who say the most disgusting things about the “others,” and think its okay because making sure the other side doesn’t win is more important than loving. As Americans, we would rather win a political battle than invite others to come unto Christ. Making sure the “others” don’t take political control is more important than sending a message to our political leaders than their behavior is unacceptable.

It has gotten so bad that we trust our favorite political pundits, media outlets, and even sometimes click-bate social media articles that are often blatantly false (if they convey a message we like), more than we trust in God, and his servants.

I have never heard God or any of his servants say that we should be angry toward our neighbors. I have read Christ say “whosoever shall say, ‘thou fool’, shall be in danger of hell fire” (Matthew 5: 22).

I have never heard God, or any of his servants say that we should contend against our neighbors, but I have heard Christ say “whosoever should smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other cheek” (Matthew 5: 39).

I have never heard God, or any of his servants say that we should hate our neighbors, but I have read Christ say “love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you” (Matthew 5: 44).

In America, we have put other gods before God. We have treated our neighbors as less than ourselves, and in many cases, less than even beasts. We worship at the foot of idols that we have engraved in the image of politics. To be a patriot, a conservative, or liberal, or Democrat or Republican, or a conscientious objector, or a Trump or Clinton supporter, to win an election, to win the culture war, to win the economic war, all of these things mean more to American Christians than does Christ. Christians are more preoccupied with being a Christian as it pertains to their qualifications or credibility in the political realm than they are about being an emissary of the Gospel. Sure we share nice Christian memes and videos and scriptures on our news feeds, but if we look at ourselves deep down, we identify much more with the word American than we do Christian.

We have failed God. We have failed our neighbors. But it is not too late to repent. Christ is still opened armed, willing to gather us like a hen gathers her chicks, but only if we forsake our golden calves, and worship once again at the alter of Christ.

We need not give up our civic mindedness, indeed we should be even more civic minded. Less lazy about our political activeness; no more lazy hate, and blind following of blind politicians.

We must lead by example, become the leaders we want to see in the world, don’t settle for the “lesser of two evils,” and “got to make sure the other side doesn’t win.” We must be informed, and educated, check our sources, listen to those we disagree with, work with them, empathize with them, collaborate and communicate until common ground is found, and civil solutions are made.

But first, must come God. God must be the focal point of our lives, politics is a mere afterthought to the God whom we love with all our hearts, mind, and soul. Loving our neighbors must come second. We should be more excited about talking about God, and serving our neighbors than about talking about politics.

The path to this ideal is not laid out like a ladder—for example, first get right with God, then our neighbors, then become politically active. We must tackle each rung simultaneously. This is difficult for the American, though, because our time and attention is so divided that we barely have room for God and our neighbors any more. We have made idols of entertainment, work, education, and the attainment of comfort and possessions as well. We treat these tools as priorities rather than as means to help us achieve out ultimate priority. But those are idols for another discussion.

I’ll end with this. Another lawyer inquired of Jesus about what it took to have eternal life. Jesus turned the question back at the lawyer and asked him what the law said. The lawyer said in his own words what Christ said about the two great commandments. Christ responded with approval: “Though hast answered right” and concluded “this do, and thou shalt live” (Luke 10:28). Later a rich young ruler asked Jesus the same question, and Jesus answered, “thou knowest the commandments.” The young man responded that he had kept all of the commandments since his youth. But Jesus said there was one thing he lacked, and informed him to sell all his possessions and distribute them to the poor and to follow him: essentially to Love God with all his heart, and to Love his neighbors as himself, but the young man went away sorrowful, because he was very rich (see Luke 18:18-23).

We too are very rich. We Americans have been pacified into a state of spiritual complacency by our middle incomes, our comforts, toys and gadgets, and all of the things we fill our time with. We credit our politics for these things. But these are not the important things.

We have been given the promise that if we keep those two great commandments that we shall live. Will we be like the rich young ruler who goes away sorrowful because we love our American lives of ease, or will we truly live as Christians and take up our crosses and love God with all our hearts, minds and souls, and love our neighbors as ourselves?

In general, don’t expect many to deviate from the path of the rich young ruler. This is, and always has been, an individual journey. If you embark on the tough path, expect it to be lonely. But also expect the comfort and confidence that comes with knowing that you are doing right by the one Person that matters most: Jesus Christ.