America the Impotent?

By Michael Youssef
Sunday, February 12, 2012

No column that I have written for MichaelYoussef.com has brought more tears of grief than this one.

As an immigrant to this great country, I have respected, revered, and loved America. As a young boy growing up in the horrors of a socialist dictatorship, America represented the ideal of freedom and peace through strength for this earthly life.

As an adult who has been privileged to circle the globe more than 42 times on behalf of the good news of the Gospel of Jesus the Christ, I have met many fellow lovers of America...though they have not had the privilege of living here.

Everywhere I have travelled, I have found myself deeply aware of some who resented America and others who feared her...but all have respected this great nation. I remember particularly in the 80s after President Reagan restored America’s tarnished national image from the Carter years. From Asia to South America people were glad for America’s renewed stature.

Sadly, today it is déjà-vu all over again.

When a banana republic like Egypt, who receives more than $1.5 billion a year in aid from the United States, can thumb its nose at the United States and put the son of America’s Secretary of Transportation on trial for promoting democracy, one wonders if anyone can truly restore America’s former “peace through strength” image to the world.

Remember, it was the Obama administration that supported the so-called “democracy” movement. It was the Obama administration that acquiesced to the collapse of the former regime, Mubarak—America’s ally. It was the Obama administration that hailed the military takeover. It was the Obama administration that held secret talks with the then-outlawed, now in charge, Muslim Brotherhood. The list continues on.

Now, the Obama administration is so impotent that it cannot demand the release of true American democracy advocates, including the son of one of its own. What a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions!

Americans of all political stripes need to grieve over America’s impotent image around the world.

In grieving over the condition of the greatest country on Earth, believers need to pray that God will somehow supernaturally intervene, not because we deserve His supernatural intervention, but because of the role that America has played and can continue to play in bringing the only message of peace through Christ to a desperate and dying world.