America was an obsession for Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville. He spent years observing and writing volumes about “Democracy in America.”

The balance of religion, faith, and the goodness of our society, balancing the frenzied impulses of religion, patriotism (nationalism), and enslavement were always fascinating to me also. For it’s just as likely that a religious government will lead to tyranny, and the worst sort.

Norman Rockwell, “Saying Grace” (fair use). Source: https://www.toledoblade.com/a-e/art/2013/12/04/Norman-Rockwell-masterpieces-at-NYC-auction/stories/20131204084

On close inspection, we shall find that religion, and not fear, has ever been the cause of the long-lived prosperity of an absolute government. - De Tocqueville, Democracy in America

We need only to look at the Taliban to make this argument. It doesn’t matter if the latest iteration is currently allowing some women to express freedoms unheard of in their past time ruling Afghanistan. That’s only for a little while, for the Taliban is said to be more hard-line today than it was in 2001 when we decided to remove it.

De Tocqueville also saw the corruption of state religion in France, where the revolution sought to remove every vestige of privilege, systemic power structures, and even cultural touchstones related to religion. The French Republic went so far as to rename the months of the year and the years of the calendar.

America’s balance of a secular government, that fiercely protects the liberty of religion and those who practice any faith, along with a religious (and even pious) population that yields back gratitude to God, and service to country, has been the driver of our greatness. It’s not that America is great by conquest, or raw power—though we possess it. America is great by our humility in knowing that we exercise our privileges and defend our rights in order to serve, to understand good from evil, and to oppose the latter.

James, the brother of Jesus, wrote in James chapter 1 about the purpose and value of religion, and how we are to recognize true servants.

22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
26 Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tonguesdeceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Christians in America, including President Joe Biden, a lifelong Roman Catholic, have forgotten who we are. Both on the political left and the right, we have become hearers of the Word of God, but doers of whatever we want, using the Bible as we please to justify our own desires and actions.

French President Emmanuel Macron called Biden to discuss our role in Afghanistan now that the Taliban is back in control. In the transcript of the call, provided by the French Embassy in America, Macron said “we cannot abandon them,” referring to our mutual allies, and told Biden we have a “moral responsibility” to evacuate them.

French Embassy U.S. @franceintheus

🇫🇷 @EmmanuelMacron expressed to @POTUS a shared, "responsibility toward the Afghan men and women who need our protection and who share our values." See the @Elysee update on #Afghanistan ➡️ bit.ly/380fQUO

The White House’s contemporaneous version of the call omitted that part of the conversation.

“They lauded the tireless efforts of their personnel working closely together in Kabul on the evacuation of their citizens, the brave Afghans who have stood by us and our Nato partners, and other vulnerable Afghan nationals,” the White House said in a brief description of the call.

When The Guardian asked the White House to comment on the difference, they were referred back to the readout.

It’s as if the Biden White House, which has repeatedly laid blame for the Afghanistan moral disaster, along with the humanitarian crisis on our southern border, at the feet of former President Donald Trump, is more interested in political spin than actual moral responsibility to do the right thing.

And Americans are eager to take a side.

In truth, Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and now Joe Biden share the responsibility for our moral culpability and now our failure to recognize our own image in a mirror.

Those who should rise up to hold our government accountable have retreated to political corners instead of recognizing basic truths. We must not abandon the orphans, widows, and families who trusted America during our occupation of Afghanistan. Our failure to see that should be a topic blasted from every pulpit in America.

We are like those who look in a mirror, go away and immediately forget what we look like. All the power, blessings, and privilege of being American are worthless, along with all our religion, if we can’t grasp this.

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We've forgotten what America looks like