It is a difficult election year, and Americans are bracing for confusion and conflict. But don’t be afraid — our culture is about to get better. Way better.
That is what the historian George Friedman predicts in The Storm Before the Calm: America's Discord, the Coming Crisis of the 2020s, and the Triumph Beyond.
His book gives me a lot of optimism despite the discord in America, but I gain true hope from St. John Paul II.
Let’s start with The Storm Before the Calm.
Friedman’s book predicting riots in the 2020s came out shortly before riots broke out in 2020.
The book shows how several cycles that cause discord and disagreement are coming to a head: economic, political, and cultural re-alignments are all hitting at the same time.
“The United States periodically reaches a point of crisis in which it appears to be at war with itself, yet after an extended period it reinvents itself, in a form both faithful to its founding and radically different from what it had been,” he writes.
He said these can be troubling times to live in, but that we can take courage that they will end well.
In fact, he says, “The kind of mutual rage and division we see in America today is trivial compared with other times in U.S. history — the Civil War, in which 650,000 died, or the 1960s, when the Eighty-Second Airborne was deployed to fight snipers in Detroit.”
The problems manifest themselves in politics, but they go deeper. “We have to remember that presidents are simply the street signs,” he said. “The cycle is working itself out in the murky depths.”
Those depths include the spheres of our daily interactions — families, communities, and parishes.
In his 2001 Apostolic Letter At the Beginning of the New Millenium, St. John Paul II said words that have kept my spirits high for the past quarter century, through highs and lows:
“We do not know what the new millennium has in store for us, but we are certain that it is safe in the hands of Christ, the ‘King of kings and Lord of lords,” he wrote.
After the terrible rise in martyrdoms in the 20th century (a problem which has gotten worse, not better, in the 21st century) he wrote, “For the Church, the martyrs have always been a seed of life. ‘The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the faith.’ This famous ‘law’ formulated by Tertullian has proved true in all the trials of history. Will this not also be the case of the century and millennium now beginning?” he asked.
It will, he said, but only if the Church witnesses confidently to the faith.
“We must revive in ourselves the burning conviction of Paul, who cried out: ‘Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel,’” he said.
He added that there is one surefire way for evangelization to win the day. “Stake everything on charity,” he said. “The charity of works ensures an unmistakable efficacy to the charity of words.”
Events have played out exactly as these two prognosticators have predicted.
Beneath the surface of the storms we see, a lot of amazing progress has been made.
The horrific stories of the martyrs are the outward signs of a flowering of faith that is reshaping the world: Remaking much of Africa and Asia, and inspiring conversions to Christianity.
America has seen a Great Viral Awakening of Evangelization. There is more solid, engaging information about the faith available now than any time in memory — and much of it can be delivered for free to your phone or computer.
The true narrative of the Church in our day is that the faith is growing stronger, not dying out.
So don’t be afraid if things get tough after the election.
It’s a time to love, serve, and speak out about the rich meaning and deep purpose our lives have in Jesus Christ. We are in a unique moment in history where our witness can truly transform the culture for years to come.
