Nukes, False Gods, & Funny Money

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The following is an editorial that I wrote and was published at FITS News yesterday. Your vote matters!

Nukes, False Gods, & Funny Money

There are a lot of things that’ll kill you, but only one’ll do it quickest. And since August of 1949 that’s been nuclear weapons. Climate change? Sure, it’s a concern. But the climate has been changing since Noah climbed into the ark. If we’re talking about what could literally wipe humanity off the map before we even get to debate the weather, then we’ve got to deal with the nukes first. Last week on the Joe Rogan Experience Trump was dead-on that nuclear disarmament is crucial, and he understands that every dollar we pour into foreign conflicts could be better spent protecting what we’ve got here at home.

The truth is that our foreign policy today is more about profit than patriotism. You’ve got the Federal Reserve churning out funny money like there’s no tomorrow, funding wars that fill the pockets of fat cats who’ve never seen a battlefield. The most decorated Marine in US history said it best: “War is a racket. Always has been”. Fiat dollars are no longer backed by the decades-long exclusive use in the oil trade. These increasingly borrowed dollars fuel military-industrial schemes that create more conflict than solutions. Defense contractors rake in billions while the average American watches their tax dollars go up in smoke—sometimes literally—thousands of miles away. In several recent cases, we’ve seen a meme come to life before our eyes as Israel launched US-made missiles to intercept Iranian drones and Hezbollah rockets that were effectively paid for with fungible US dollars.

Psalm 135 says it plainly: when you worship gold and silver, you lose your soul and your reason. In our case, it’s worse, because at least gold and silver have inherent value. Fiat money is worth less than the paper it's printed on, except to those who put their faith in it. I’m not saying every Democrat is worshiping a golden idol in their basement, but a foreign policy that constantly chases profits abroad looks a whole lot like a false god to me. By prioritizing war over peace, and intervention over independence, they’ve handed over the treasury to the corporate media and many bad actors within the military-industrial complex, both of which profit from every bomb dropped and every troop deployed. This is a bipartisan problem in Congress, but there’s an unmistakable, stark policy difference between Harris and Trump that will be decided next week.

Our first step out of this mess? Elect leaders who see the whole picture, who understand that de-escalation should be our top priority, but that we must also be strong and secure at home. We need folks in office who put American lives and well-being ahead of corporate interests and war contracts. Trump’s call for nuclear restraint, and a foreign policy that prioritizes our own soil over endless foreign wars, is one we’d do well to heed. President Trump has talked about these ideas for the better part of a decade. What I’ll be hoping and praying for is that he has, in fact, learned from his first term about the importance of hiring the right people to enact his vision of US foreign policy…and not war-hawks like John Bolton.

But for the long haul, it’ll take more than a president with a responsible foreign policy. As a nation, we need to stop chasing false gods, whether they come in the form of cash or influence, and start asking ourselves what Jesus would have us do. The answer’s as old as the hills: seek peace, be strong by practicing restraint, and use what we have to build up our communities. That’s how we may save first our country, maybe the world, and also our souls.