{"id":34297,"date":"2025-02-12T16:39:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-12T16:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/expressing-despair-about-our-nation\/"},"modified":"2025-02-12T16:39:00","modified_gmt":"2025-02-12T16:39:00","slug":"expressing-despair-about-our-nation","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/expressing-despair-about-our-nation\/","title":{"rendered":"Expressing Despair about Our Nation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The day after the Trump assassination attempt, <em>The Wall Street Journal<\/em> ran a story in which they interviewed Americans about the state of our nation. The article concluded, &ldquo;The weariness was palpable nationwide as <em>The Wall Street Journal<\/em> spoke with more than four dozen people about how they felt about the shooting that came close to killing a former U.S. president. They pointed fingers and expressed anger, fear, and heartbreak&#8230;&rdquo;<\/p>\n\n<p>Nearly to person, they expressed a sense of dread, saying there seems to be no good news on the horizon&hellip; But unlike other times of crisis, after 9\/11 or Sandy Hook or George Floyd, this event left few Americans hopeful that any good might come out of tragedy.<\/p>\n\n<p>A sixty-three-year-old cook said, &ldquo;The world has gone to Hades in a handbasket.&rdquo; A thirty-two-year-old electrician from New Orleans said, &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a hole in this country&hellip;We&rsquo;re not sticking together.&rdquo; A retired project manager said, &ldquo;We&rsquo;re in crisis. There is no easy solution, there&rsquo;s no sound bite. We&rsquo;ve lost our ability to listen or to hear.&rdquo;<\/p>\n\n<p>The article ended by focusing on a married couple in their late 40s from Austin, Texas. &ldquo;They used to joke about plans to survive a zombie apocalypse,&rdquo; the authors noted. &ldquo;Now they talk seriously whether they can afford land outside of a city. A quiet place away from civil unrest.&rdquo;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[446],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3414,3422,3523,3716,3726,3742,3766,3811,3977,4087,4504,4517,4637,4660,5178,5216,5267,5268],"tax_ctp_topics":[395,396],"class_list":["post-34297","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-anger","tax_ctp_tags-anxiety","tax_ctp_tags-broken-heartedness","tax_ctp_tags-crisis","tax_ctp_tags-culture","tax_ctp_tags-decadence","tax_ctp_tags-despair","tax_ctp_tags-disunity","tax_ctp_tags-fear-of-death","tax_ctp_tags-government","tax_ctp_tags-murder","tax_ctp_tags-nation","tax_ctp_tags-pessimism","tax_ctp_tags-politics","tax_ctp_tags-tragedy","tax_ctp_tags-unrest","tax_ctp_tags-weapons","tax_ctp_tags-weariness"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Expressing Despair about Our Nation - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/expressing-despair-about-our-nation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Expressing Despair about Our Nation - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The day after the Trump assassination attempt, The Wall Street Journal ran a story in which they interviewed Americans about the state of our nation. 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