What's more, he sees the way that civility and social "decency" becomes a cover for evil. He knows that "the appearance of godliness" can mask heinous injustice. When I consider our nation's great evil, I always think of this quotation from the preface to The Screwtape Letters:

"I like bats much better than bureaucrats. I live in the Managerial Age, in a world of 'Admin.' The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid 'dens of crime' that Dickens loved to paint. It is not done even in concentration camps & labour camps [or abortion clinics]...

In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars & cut fingernails & smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice."

And right now I see far too many Christians who are willing to celebrate those quiet, smooth-shaven men [and women].

And what's more sobering, God sees, and God knows. We would be wise to repent of our apathy in the day of his kindness. Some day the iniquity of the Americans will be complete. Until then, have mercy, Lord Jesus.