On April 13, 1970 America’s Apollo 13 space capsule was about 200,000 miles from earth when mission commander James Lovell sent a message that caused the world to stop, look up, and pray. An oxygen tank explosion threatened the on-board life-support systems and the original mission was scrubbed and replaced with an unprecedented rescue operation. It was only by the prayers of millions and the extraordinary efforts of countless dedicated workers, that the three astronauts returned safely to earth after four cold, dark, long and anxious days in their crippled ship.

Apollo 13’s problem was that the support module lost its integrity. It was no longer whole but broken, and the damage done meant it could no longer accomplish what its designers intended. It would be nearly a year before the next Apollo mission would be launched and then only after a thorough review of what went wrong and all the needed corrections were made.

America today has an integrity problem. We are no longer whole but broken, and in our present condition we can no longer accomplish what our designers intended.  Without integrity there will be no trust, and on many many levels America has lost the trust of its own citizens and citizens of countries that once looked to us for hope and courage.

How did this happen? We disconnected ourselves from the life-support systems that nurtured us at our founding and strengthened us as we matured. Self-evident truths are being discarded. The unalienable rights endowed to us by our Creator are being overwritten by edicts from a government not by the people and for the people, but over the people. Like the Apollo astronauts we find ourselves in a position of grave danger.

How did we get here? We have replaced God’s wisdom with Man’s whims. Objective truth is no longer recognized. Centuries of proven and time-tested lessons are trampled in a rush to re-invent America in a foreign image. Our lawmakers pass laws yet don’t follow what they themselves have enacted. Our “leaders” lie and deceive in order to win votes, with no intention of fulfilling the promises they’ve publicly made. Honesty has taken a holiday.

There is little desire for truth if it will cause one faction or the other to lose power. Professional “spin doctors” concoct elaborate stories to persuade but, when stripped of all the cleverness, only deceit remains. News and Fake News battle daily and it is nearly impossible to distinguish which is true, since the once-trusted voices that report the news have themselves compromised their integrity and lost the trust of the people they are supposed to serve.

We were once a nation of laws, and proudly so. But look around, can that be said today when the powerful and privileged are seemingly immune from legal sanctions? When undisputed perjury at the highest levels of authority is ignored, or worse, is encouraged if it advances the desired narrative or outcome?

Washington, we have a problem. With you. You cannot continue to take an oath to support and defend the Constitution and then ignore or trample it. You cannot expect our trust when you repeatedly act with deceit. America’s life-support systems are at risk, and a course correction is desperately needed.

So, what can we do? How can we find our way back from here? There’s a formula that was once prescribed for the benefit of another nation that had lost its way: if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins, and heal their land. Those words, and that path, would be readily recognized by the founders of America; my prayer now is that America’s current rulers would seriously heed this counsel, and that you, and I, and every American, would do the same.

God bless.