A Body at War with Itself

Taylor Muhl has been in the entertainment business for all her adult life—mostly as a singer. Naturally, image is important to her. But Taylor has a medical condition that makes her, well, kind of weird.

She suffers from Chimerism. As she developed in the womb, her body absorbed that of her twin. Consequently, Taylor has two different sets of DNA, two different bloodstreams, and two different immune systems. She first realized she was different when people pointed out to her that her torso was divided into two different colors. As she got older her health began to deteriorate. Why? Her two immune systems were treating each other as enemies and attacking each other.

Yes, Taylor is an anomaly. It’s very rare for a person to have two different sets of DNA, two different bloodstreams, and two different body tones. But what makes her condition most hazardous is that she also has two different immune systems that are constantly at war with each other and threaten to destroy her health.

Internal War

This strikes me as a picture of America! We are a body at war with itself. And we seem to relish the conflict, even though, if our nation falls, it will take down all its people with it. We will all share the benefits of our fortune or the curses of our failure. Yet we are continually engaged in fighting each other—like Taylor Muhl’s two immune systems. We obsess so completely over our differences that we miss an important point. Like it or not, we’re all stuck in the same body. If this body dies, guess what? We die with it.

Do you doubt this? Then let me ask the question. How many true friends and advocates does America have in the world? Does China yearn for America’s success? Does Russia? Or Iran? North Korea? Actually, you’d be hard-pressed to find a nation—even among our allies—which openly supports America. It’s almost “in vogue” to hate the United States. So who does that leave in the world to say a kind word about this country of ours? We alone are all that remain to celebrate America. But America is not celebrated in any of our state-funded schools. America is not celebrated in the media. Nor do motion pictures or television or our news agencies or NFL players celebrate America. No. They all choose to agree with our enemies that America is a terrible, horrible place.

The Example of Other Countries

What puzzles me is this. I’ve spent a lot of my time abroad and I’ve never seen this national self-hatred anywhere. In all the countries I’ve been to—Germany, Spain, the Czech Republic, Poland, France, Italy, Austria, Croatia, Bosnia, Hungary, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Japan, South Korea, Egypt, Kuwait, Iraq, Somalia, Mexico, Canada, etc.—their citizens sing their own praises and are not particularly warm to foreigners. These nations, despite their checkered pasts, celebrate their own culture and history.

Why are we not doing the same? We are the only advocates America has. We need to dismiss all the hate speech from our media which seeks to divide along every line possible—race, color, gender, sexual preference, political affiliation, income, etc.—and stop fighting each other. Both history and fate link us together. And we will all enjoy the same benefits or suffer the same catastrophe. So, before you sink this ship, make sure you’ve got another one you can escape to. Do your homework and find out how much better you’d be living in another country. I assure you, once you begin looking at the benefits of living elsewhere, America will start to look mighty good.

A Christian’s Response

You know, in the Bible, when the people of Israel and Jerusalem were captured and deported to Babylon, they suffered a terrible case of culture shock. They were immersed into a culture that offended them and a language they didn’t understand. They could find nothing good to say about Babylon and cherished the thought that they would soon escape and return to the homeland—as their false prophets were foretelling. But God told the prophet Jeremiah to write a letter to these exiles in Babylon and give them this message. “Seek the peace, good, and welfare of the city to which I’ve exiled you, and pray to the LORD on its behalf. For in its peace and welfare, you will have peace and welfare” (Jer. 29:7).

Presently, we’re like a body with two different warring immune systems, each doing all it can to destroy our common future. Let’s follow God’s advice and seek the peace, good, and welfare of the nation in which He Himself has placed us.

PRAYER:

Almighty and merciful Father, please bless the United States of America. Please forgive our many sins and heal our land of its divisions. Deliver us, O God, from our spiritual and moral sickness and instill in us a hunger and thirst for righteousness. O God of our fathers, send forth Your Divine Spirit that He might turn our hearts to You in faith and repentance and to each other in love and reconciliation. Please bless America and make her citizens spiritually sound and morally straight. Just as You bring to life every plant, tree, and blade of grass in the spring, breathe life into the heart of every American. Awaken our conscience and make us concerned for each other’s needs. Dear Father, raise America to true greatness and grant her supreme success as Your torch of freedom and Your instrument of peace at home and throughout the world. Amen.