Clear and Anchored: The Collapse Isn’t Coming—It’s Here
What Happens When a Nation Surrenders Truth for Power—and the Church Stays Quiet
There’s a kind of destruction that doesn’t look like chaos—it looks like control. It doesn’t come with smoke and sirens. It comes with silence. It happens when people adjust to the darkness, when fear becomes familiar, and when legality is mistaken for morality.
This is where we are now.
Donald Trump is the president. Project 2025 is no longer a fringe plan whispered about in policy circles. It is the guiding doctrine of this administration. And each week that passes brings with it more evidence that the foundations of American democracy are being deliberately, methodically dismantled. This isn’t political theater. It’s political engineering. And for too many Americans—especially Christians—it still doesn’t feel real enough to act.
But it’s real. It’s happening. And if we wait until it affects us personally, it will be too late.
In the early months of Trump’s second term, Project 2025 has gone from blueprint to reality. Thousands of federal workers have been removed and replaced with political loyalists. Independent agencies like the Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency—agencies designed to function outside of political pressure—have been brought under direct executive control. Federal regulations are being gutted at record speed. The open and repeated targeting of the judiciary by those in power is deeply alarming.
Judges who rule against the administration are smeared as “radical,” “corrupt,” or “traitorous” in public statements and media surrogates. Some have had their personal information leaked. Others have received death threats. The chilling effect is unmistakable. When judges are publicly vilified for upholding the Constitution, the message is clear: loyalty is valued more than legality. Even the threat of retaliation becomes a form of control. Judicial independence—the bedrock of any functioning democracy—is being slowly and intentionally undermined.
Simultaneously, a new tax bill has emerged from this administration, claiming to “revitalize” the economy. But in truth, it guts the social safety net. It slashes corporate taxes while eliminating housing credits, food assistance, and family tax relief. At its core, the bill is a redistribution of wealth—from the bottom to the top. While billionaires celebrate, everyday families are left to figure out how to survive.
Then there is the border.
It’s not just asylum seekers being detained. American citizens—especially bilingual residents and humanitarian volunteers—are being stopped, searched, and held under suspicion of “aiding illegal entry.” Some have been separated from their families. Others have been held without formal charges. These are not isolated incidents. They are part of a growing pattern of fear-based governance: silence the courts, restrict the media, and criminalize compassion.
But we can’t talk about any of this without talking about the church.
There is no way to address what’s happening in this country without confronting the truth that large swaths of American Christianity have been co-opted. This isn’t about personal values or theological nuance. It’s about how the greatest commandment—to love God and love our neighbor—has been buried beneath culture wars and partisan loyalty.
For years, many Christians have been told that fidelity to faith means voting Republican. That opposing national abortion access is the defining trait of a godly life. That anything less than a federal ban is moral failure. But this is not biblical. This is not discipleship. This is manipulation.
Jesus never called us to legislate people into holiness. He never used force to bring people to truth. He didn’t coerce with law—He invited with love. What He did do was meet people with grace and truth, not law and punishment. He walked alongside the vulnerable. He stood against corrupt systems. He never once used the government to control someone’s body. Not once.
What the Christian right has done is reduce the complexity of abortion—of poverty, of maternal health, of generational trauma—into a single yes or no checkbox on a ballot. But the gospel doesn’t flatten people like that. If we are pro-life, we must care about the lives of women, the lives of children in poverty, the lives of those living in communities abandoned by every system we’ve failed to fix.
To legislate morality without love is to make God’s law a weapon.
And we have become so tethered to the politics of fear that we’ve forgotten the mission of faith. We were not called to build a Christian nation. We were called to build the Kingdom of God—and those are not the same thing. One demands control. The other invites transformation.
God’s greatest commandment was not “win the culture war.” It was this: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart… and love your neighbor as yourself.” If our gospel isn’t good news for the poor, the outcast, the abused, the woman in crisis, the refugee, the neighbor we disagree with—then it is not the gospel of Jesus. It’s the gospel of empire.
And if we don’t find the courage to say that out loud, we are no longer the light of the world. We are just another system of silence.
What’s most devastating isn’t just what’s being done, but how many people are adjusting to it. How many people are staying quiet. How many pastors who once preached about courage now preach about comfort. How many believers who once claimed to be truth-tellers now retreat behind neutrality when things get too political.
But Jesus didn’t avoid politics. He was executed by the state for confronting the marriage of political and religious corruption. He flipped tables. He rebuked Pharisees. He stood silent before Pilate not out of fear, but out of defiance. He didn’t die to protect the empire. He died to expose it.
If our faith doesn’t call us to speak when others are silenced, it isn’t faith. It’s fear in disguise.
We don’t need performance. We need prophets. We don’t need hashtags. We need holy disobedience. We need believers so rooted in truth that they cannot be bought with comfort.
And so here’s what I’m asking myself this week—and maybe you need to ask it too:
What has fear cost me?
Where have I stayed quiet to protect my peace?
When did I trade conviction for belonging?
And what would it look like to be anchored again—not in nationalism, but in Christ?
Because the collapse isn’t coming. It’s here.
And the only way through it is to live truthfully, pray boldly, and refuse to let comfort win.
Reader Reflection:
Where have I confused Christian faith with political identity?
What would it take for me to let go of fear and speak clearly, even if it costs me something?
If this brought you clarity, share it. Forward it. Print it. Read it twice. This moment is not about fear—it’s about faith.
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Sources
Project 2025 Implementation (Trump’s Second Term)
Overview and Execution Plans
Heritage Foundation’s official Project 2025 site: https://www.project2025.org
The Washington Post – “What is Project 2025 and what would it do?”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/13/project-2025-heritage-trump/CBS News – “Trump allies’ Project 2025 seeks to remake the federal government”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-project-2025-playbook/ProPublica – “The Plan to Gut the Federal Government”
https://www.propublica.org/article/project-2025-plan-to-dismantle-federal-government
Federal Workforce Replacement and Agency Overhaul
NPR – “Trump’s Schedule F would strip civil service protections”
https://www.npr.org/2023/07/20/1188909123/schedule-f-trump-federal-workers
Judicial Targeting and Threats
New York Times – “Trump and Allies Plan to Use DOJ to Target Critics”
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/15/us/politics/trump-justice-department-retribution.htmlCNN – “Federal judges face unprecedented threats amid political polarization”
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/25/politics/federal-judges-threats/index.htmlABA Journal – “Judges increasingly threatened by political rhetoric”
https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/judges-face-growing-threats
Border Enforcement and Citizen Detainments
Texas Tribune – “Even American citizens are being stopped at Texas border checkpoints”
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/09/15/texas-border-checkpoints-immigration/NBC News – “U.S. citizens wrongfully detained in immigration sweeps”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/american-citizens-immigration-detained
GOP Tax Policy Direction (Reflective of Proposed Trends)
While no official “2025 Tax Bill” has passed, the narrative reflects projected policy directions:
Brookings Institution – “Trump-era tax plans and inequality”
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2017/09/29/trumps-tax-plan-and-its-implications-for-income-inequality/Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget – GOP tax policy impact analysis https://www.crfb.org/
Christian Nationalism and the Co-opting of Faith
Christianity Today – “How Christian Nationalism Hurts the Church”
https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2023/march-web-only/christian-nationalism-danger-church.htmlReligion News Service – “The Gospel Is Not the Culture War”
https://religionnews.com/2023/11/10/the-gospel-is-not-the-culture-war/The Gospel Coalition – “Why Christian Nationalism Is Unbiblical”
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/christian-nationalism-danger/
Scriptural/Theological References Used in the Essay
Matthew 22:37–39 (The Greatest Commandment)
Micah 6:8 (Justice, Mercy, Humility)
Matthew 23 (Jesus confronts religious leaders)
Luke 4:18 (Jesus declares good news to the poor, oppressed, and imprisoned)
All of this and more. And this is also where my writing is taking me.