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Matt Walsh: Christian Church ‘Doesn’t Have Much of a Future’ – Unless This Changes

September 14, 2017
Staff

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Have you struggled with not feeling spiritually fed at your church?

Christians around the country are starving to hear biblical, honest teaching that holds them accountable in their lives. TheBlaze’s Matt Walsh joined Glenn on radio Thursday to talk about the spiritual dangers of a church that doesn’t give people the truth they need to hear.

“We need explanation. We need to be told how to navigate the spiritual minefield of modern culture,” Matt wrote this week. “We need something to hold onto.”

While some may be happy with their pastor and their church, every Christian needs to recognize that culture is changing the church, not the other way around.

“To deny that this is a problem is absurd,” Matt said on Thursday’s show. “We know that the faith is decaying in this culture.”

Glenn used the hospital analogy to talk about how desperately people of faith need to come to church each week to have a safe place for spiritual conviction and repentance.

“I think our churches should be spiritual hospitals. I’m coming in there every day, and I need triage,” Glenn said. “Instead, what’s happening is our churches are turning into someplace that is either an entertainment center or it is a place where all the people think they are doctors and they’re talking about all of the other patients that they need to help.”

This article provided courtesy of TheBlaze.

GLENN: Matt Walsh who works with TheBlaze, wrote an article that was posted yesterday that you need to read.

A certain sermon I heard a little while ago stuck with me. It began with a reference to Toy Story. Yes, the cartoon with talking toys. The Pixar film, the pastor explained, contained many examples of friendship. Friendship is important. It's good to have friends, in case any of you thought friendship was bad.

He was standing up boldly, if anyone wanted to stand up and boldly declare otherwise. Remember that Randy Newman said, "You got a friend in me."

The pastor remembered it. He quoted it at length. Now, I have no problem with a sermon that draws on art or literature outside the Scripture to illustrate a theme contained in it. But all of the poems, novels, songs, films, paintings, sculptures that may reveal some divine truth, he went with Toy Story?

Oh, but Toy Story is relatable, you see. Relatable to whom?

The message preached from most of the pulpits in America is just like this: Superficial, childish, empty, and seemingly designed to insult the intelligence of anyone who hears it.

Christianity is dull and lifeless in this country. Because that's what the church and leaders have done to it. They've made it into something so bland, so generic, and inoffensive that it no longer bears any resemblance to the faith of our Christian ancestors. Indeed, the primary goal of the modern church is to avoid offense at whatever cost.

And this is precisely why they are dying. Because they're not merely boring people. The problem is more specifically that they are starving people.

There's no substance. No meat. Nothing in the message being preached. The congregants sit there and slowly starve to death. Your flocks are starving, churches. And you are starving them.

We're getting killed out here. Do you even understand that? We drag our sorry, beaten carcasses into church every Sunday. Fewer and fewer even bother to do that anymore. After another week of languishing in Sodom. And what do you have to say? Friends are good. Really?

The troops are suffering massive defeats in battle. And when they consult their commanding officer, what do they hear? Yeah, it's rough out there, guys, so let me tell you what I learned about teamwork from watching Guardians of the Galaxy.

People need to be woken up. They need to be offended. Offend us, pastor! Make us uncomfortable. Make me look at my reflection and see the things I'd rather not see. Pull me out of my comfort zone. Make me angry at myself.

Or at you for making me angry at myself. Can you stand to have people angry at you? If not, then you've chosen the wrong profession and the wrong religion.

Whoever doesn't want to be challenged, whoever insists that they are above approach, whoever wants only sweet nothings whispered in their ears, whoever wants a comfortable Christianity does not want Christianity at all. There are not limbs on the body of Christ, there are malignant growths. They are toxic. Cut them out.

We pray that they return to the faith, but not until the faith -- not until the faith is the faith they truly desire.

If they are sitting there hoping to have their ears tickled and their preconceived notions confirmed, it is the duty of any pastor or priest to disappoint them and offend them. Because sometimes there is no other way to tell the truth.

GLENN: Matt Walsh is here. That article is at TheBlaze.com. Matt, you know what I like about you is you take on -- you take on your own. You know, you're not pointing fingers at others. You're taking on your own. Your own faith, your own church, and I appreciate that. And making people uncomfortable.

What is the future of Christianity?

MATT: I don't think it has much of a future in this culture, if this is what we get. This is what strikes me when I go to church -- and I know that, and I wrote that, and there were plenty of Christians who said, "Well, my pastor is great. I don't know what you're talking about." And that's fine. If you have a great pastor, a great church, then good for you. You should be very happy for that and grateful. But to deny that this is a problem, is absurd. We know that the faith is decaying in this culture. It's very clear.

You look at any indicator, starting with church attendance. It's lower than it has ever been. There's more atheists in this country than there's ever been. You just go right down the line. And it strikes me that at least from my experience and from talking to people, that the main problem isn't that people are going to church, and they're hearing hearsay and blasphemy. Well, they're hearing that too, so that's a problem.

But even more than that, it's not that it's just -- it's just this nothingness. It's like you're going to church and the person talking to you doesn't understand -- doesn't realize what century they're living in or who they're -- you know, it's like --

GLENN: It is a complete disconnect from -- you walk in, and it is completely disconnected from the world you just left. And not in a good way.

MATT: Right.

GLENN: It's as if it could be 1950. It could be 1800. It could be 2024. There's no connection at all to my life. It feels that way to me.

MATT: Yeah. And to the struggles that we're --

GLENN: Yes.

MATT: It should feel not disconnected. But it should feel like an oasis of sorts. Like, you are -- you're in a safe place. A sanctuary is what they used to call it. And it's what is supposed to be.

GLENN: See, may I point something out to you? Because I wonder if you're -- if we're saying two different things. Because I just -- I was just asked to be a part of the bishopric in my faith, and it's a lay ministry.

And we're wrestling with this very thing. And I -- I said, you know, sanctuary, it needs to be a sanctuary for God's people to be able to come and be safe. And you can say anything.

But, you know, the name Israel itself means wrestle with God. God expects you to wrestle with him. He expects you to ask tough questions. He expects his people to say, "Wait a minute. Hang on just a second."

And what's happening is, I think our -- our churches should be spiritual hospitals. I'm coming in there every day, and I need triage. Please, help me, help me, help me.

I need spiritual medicine all the time. And instead, what's happening is our churches are turning into some place that is either an entertainment center, or it is a place where all the people think that they're doctors, and they're talking about all the other patients that they need to help. I think that's upside down.

MATT: I think it's like churches are today -- what's that dumb -- well, I didn't like it that much -- that Robin Williams movie where he pretended to be a clown.

STU: Patch Adams? That's a weird reference to bring into this.

MATT: Okay. Well, I'm saying, people are dying, and so the DACA puts on a clown nose and makes them laugh, which is great. But they also need medicine. It's like, if I'm going to a hospital, it's great to make me smile. But also, treat what's killing me. I don't want a doctor to just come --

GLENN: I don't know if you -- I don't know if you just watched the trailer of Patch Adams, but he was a very good doctor as well.

MATT: I don't know. But let's put this reference aside.

GLENN: All right.

MATT: Put this doctor aside. Churches are like what I just imagined Patch Adams to be, which is, hey, let's ignore the actual cancer that these people have, what they're struggling with. And let's just make them smile or put them to sleep.

GLENN: So here's the argument -- the pushback -- because I've talked to pastors. And, quite honestly, this is happening in conservative media, it's happening in liberal media as well. It's happening all over: No, no, no, but if I say those things, then I'll diminish the audience, or I'll diminish the number of people who are coming to this church, and then I won't have a voice at all.

Where my feeling is, you're not going to have a voice at all anyway. You have to understand, you just keep going along -- there's no -- why would anyone come to you when I can get it from watching Patch Adams or I can get it from watching Toy Story? I need something that is real, authentic, and eternally true that can tell me and help me next week.

MATT: Right. Exactly.

GLENN: But nobody is doing that because they're afraid people are going to leave.

MATT: Right. But there's no reason for that. You're not giving them anything that they need. There's no reason for you to exist, unless you tell them the things that might make them leave.

And I think that -- if we get to a point -- it would be great in this country, separate the wheat from the chafe. Let's figure out where we actually stand as Christians. So if every church operated this way, if they got up and told the unvarnished truth. And you had -- you have a church of 100 people, and 98 of them get up in the middle of the homily or the sermon and march out and you leave two there, well, then, great. Because those are the two. Those are the actual two Christians. Let's start there. Now we know how many actual Christians we have in the church, two. Let's start with them. Let's build them up. Give them what they need. And then maybe they can go out. Because this is the whole point. They're supposed to go out into the mission field and go win back the other 98.

But when you're not -- so it's really the two. It's the two that you need to kind of cater to. You need to give them what they need because -- here's the problem: If you lose those two, but you keep the 98 --

GLENN: The 98 --

MATT: -- then you're done. You're not really a church anymore. You're just --

GLENN: They're leaves that will blow away in the fall wind.

STU: So going back to your story here on TheBlaze, because this is interesting -- are you making the point, like they have to make sure they're making the uncomfortable points in any way possible and not skimming from that?

MATT: Right.

STU: Or are you making the point that they shouldn't be making these points via the vehicle of Toy Story references?

GLENN: Yeah. Hang on. This is an important question. Are you okay with a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, or are you just saying there's nothing in those?

MATT: If there's medicine -- yeah, if there actually is medicine in it. But what we're getting is the sugar, but there's no medicine. So it's just sugar makes the sugar go down, which is great. But there's no medicine.

STU: That's a good way to get diabetes as well.

MATT: Yeah. Now, if you can figure out a way to use Toy Story to make some deep spiritual point that's going to like satiate the deep yearnings of these Christian believers, then you're very talented. And, great, go for it. And you have seen much more in Toy Story than I saw. Because I've seen the movie many times, and all I see is talking toys. But if you see something deeper, then great. Make that point.

But in my case, all he made was the point that, yeah, let's make friends with people. Well, I just -- just -- then just put on the movie Toy Story. Let us watch that. At least it would be more entertaining anyway. Tim Allen and everything is in it.

STU: Because you made a point earlier about -- about bringing the tough truth, right? And you have to make sure you're giving the tough truth. And you did that with an illustration -- kind of an illustration of the trailer of Patch Adams, in a way that I think -- like, that's an effective way of making those points. If you could bring the truth through those vehicles, I don't necessarily mind it. I will say it's a sad circumstance that Christians have to get that message through movies. And it's more relatable because of movies.

GLENN: Jesus spoke in parables. I mean, I actually have -- from the pulpit, I have actually -- and this made a lot of people very angry. But I actually -- I talked about Willy Wonka and the Golden Ticket. And I tied it into --

STU: You're not helping my case here.

GLENN: I know. And I tied it into a gospel message. I think it can be done.

MATT: It can.

GLENN: But if I'm talking about, hey, and, by the way, you can lick the wallpaper on the way out, no, uh-uh. No. You can't.

MATT: Yeah. It can be done if -- and that's something -- and you're right, Jesus used parables that were very simple to appeal -- so that the people that were listening could understand it. But obviously the point he was making was very deep. And sometimes the points he was making were frankly terrifying.

GLENN: Yes.

MATT: He was finding a way to package it so that -- not just so that it would be palatable, but so that we could wrap our minds around this concept. So if people are doing that, then fantastic. But that also takes a certain level of insight and talent that I think a lot of pastors just lack, which is no -- you know, that's -- I don't think you need to be necessarily a brilliant public speaker to be a pastor. You know, there could be normal people that are taking these jobs. But if you're in that camp, then I think you just need to be more direct. And even if you're just writing it down and reading from it, but just tell the people the truth that they need to hear. Don't try to get too cute with it, unless you really are a brilliant orator, which most of these people aren't.

GLENN: Thanks, Matt.

STU: You can read the story from Matt Walsh up at TheBlaze.com. And how many times a week are you doing -- are you doing columns at TheBlaze?

MATT: Two times a week. Then I got a podcast coming out.

STU: Nice. Yeah, the podcast too. Listen to that as well. Matt Walsh. Thanks, Matt.

MATT: Thank you.

Why do Americans feel so empty?

Mario Tama / Staff | Getty Images

Anxiety, anger, and chronic dissatisfaction signal a country searching for meaning. Without truth and purpose, politics becomes a dangerous substitute for identity.

We have built a world overflowing with noise, convenience, and endless choice, yet something essential has slipped out of reach. You can sense it in the restless mood of the country, the anxiety among young people who cannot explain why they feel empty, in the angry confusion that dominates our politics.

We have more wealth than any nation in history, but the heart of the culture feels strangely malnourished. Before we can debate debt or elections, we must confront the reality that we created a world of things, but not a world of purpose.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

What we are living through is not just economic or political dysfunction. It is the vacuum that appears when a civilization mistakes abundance for meaning.

Modern life is stuffed with everything except what the human soul actually needs. We built systems to make life faster, easier, and more efficient — and then wondered why those systems cannot teach our children who they are, why they matter, or what is worth living for.

We tell the next generation to chase success, influence, and wealth, turning childhood into branding. We ask kids what they want to do, not who they want to be. We build a world wired for dopamine rather than dignity, and then we wonder why so many people feel unmoored.

When everything is curated, optimized, and delivered at the push of a button, the question “what is my life for?” gets lost in the static.

The crisis beneath the headlines

It is not just the young who feel this crisis. Every part of our society is straining under the weight of meaninglessness.

Look at the debt cycle — the mathematical fate no civilization has ever escaped once it crosses a threshold that we seem to have already blown by. While ordinary families feel the pressure, our leaders respond with distraction, with denial, or by rewriting the very history that could have warned us.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

We have entered a cultural moment where the noise is so loud that it drowns out the simplest truths. We are living in a country that no longer knows how to hear itself think.

So people go searching. Some drift toward the false promise of socialism, some toward the empty thrill of rebellion. Some simply check out. When a culture forgets what gives life meaning, it becomes vulnerable to every ideology that offers a quick answer.

The quiet return of meaning

And yet, quietly, something else is happening. Beneath the frustration and cynicism, many Americans are recognizing that meaning does not come from what we own, but from what we honor. It does not rise from success, but from virtue. It does not emerge from noise, but from the small, sacred things that modern life has pushed to the margins — the home, the table, the duty you fulfill, the person you help when no one is watching.

The danger is assuming that this rediscovery happens on its own. It does not.

Reorientation requires intention. It requires rebuilding the habits and virtues that once held us together. It requires telling the truth about our history instead of rewriting it to fit today’s narratives. And it requires acknowledging what has been erased: that meaning is inseparable from God’s presence in a nation’s life.

Harold M. Lambert / Contributor | Getty Images

Where renewal begins

We have built a world without stillness, and then we wondered why no one can hear the questions that matter. Those questions remain, whether we acknowledge them or not. They do not disappear just because we drown them in entertainment or noise. They wait for us, and the longer we ignore them, the more disoriented we become.

Meaning is still available. It is found in rebuilding the smallest, most human spaces — the places that cannot be digitized, globalized, or automated. The home. The family. The community.

These are the daily virtues that do not trend on social media, but that hold a civilization upright. If we want to repair this country, we begin there, exactly where every durable civilization has always begun: one virtue at a time, one tradition at a time, one generation at a time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

A break in trust: A NEW Watergate is brewing in plain sight

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

When institutions betray the public’s trust, the country splits, and the spiral is hard to stop.

Something drastic is happening in American life. Headlines that should leave us stunned barely register anymore. Stories that once would have united the country instead dissolve into silence or shrugs.

It is not apathy exactly. It is something deeper — a growing belief that the people in charge either cannot or will not fix what is broken.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf.

I call this response the Bubba effect. It describes what happens when institutions lose so much public trust that “Bubba,” the average American minding his own business, finally throws his hands up and says, “Fine. I will handle it myself.” Not because he wants to, but because the system that was supposed to protect him now feels indifferent, corrupt, or openly hostile.

The Bubba effect is not a political movement. It is a survival instinct.

What triggers the Bubba effect

We are watching the triggers unfold in real time. When members of Congress publicly encourage active duty troops to disregard orders from the commander in chief, that is not a political squabble. When a federal judge quietly rewrites the rules so one branch of government can secretly surveil another, that is not normal. That is how republics fall. Yet these stories glided across the news cycle without urgency, without consequence, without explanation.

When the American people see the leadership class shrug, they conclude — correctly — that no one is steering the ship.

This is how the Bubba effect spreads. It is not just individuals resisting authority. It is sheriffs refusing to enforce new policies, school boards ignoring state mandates, entire communities saying, “We do not believe you anymore.” It becomes institutional, cultural, national.

A country cracking from the inside

This effect can be seen in Dearborn, Michigan. In the rise of fringe voices like Nick Fuentes. In the Epstein scandal, where powerful people could not seem to locate a single accountable adult. These stories are different in content but identical in message: The system protects itself, not you.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf. That does not mean they suddenly agree with everything that person says. It means they feel abandoned by the institutions that were supposed to be trustworthy.

The Bubba effect is what fills that vacuum.

The dangers of a faithless system

A republic cannot survive without credibility. Congress cannot oversee intelligence agencies if it refuses to discipline its own members. The military cannot remain apolitical if its chain of command becomes optional. The judiciary cannot defend the Constitution while inventing loopholes that erase the separation of powers.

History shows that once a nation militarizes politics, normalizes constitutional shortcuts, or allows government agencies to operate without scrutiny, it does not return to equilibrium peacefully. Something will give.

The question is what — and when.

The responsibility now belongs to us

In a healthy country, this is where the media steps in. This is where universities, pastors, journalists, and cultural leaders pause the outrage machine and explain what is at stake. But today, too many see themselves not as guardians of the republic, but of ideology. Their first loyalty is to narrative, not truth.

The founders never trusted the press more than the public. They trusted citizens who understood their rights, lived their responsibilities, and demanded accountability. That is the antidote to the Bubba effect — not rage, but citizenship.

How to respond without breaking ourselves

Do not riot. Do not withdraw. Do not cheer on destruction just because you dislike the target. That is how nations lose themselves. Instead, demand transparency. Call your representatives. Insist on consequences. Refuse to normalize constitutional violations simply because “everyone does it.” If you expect nothing, you will get nothing.

Do not hand your voice to the loudest warrior simply because he is swinging a bat at the establishment. You do not beat corruption by joining a different version of it. You beat it by modeling the country you want to preserve: principled, accountable, rooted in truth.

Adam Gray / Stringer | Getty Images

Every republic reaches a moment when historians will later say, “That was the warning.” We are living in ours. But warnings are gifts if they are recognized. Institutions bend. People fail. The Constitution can recover — if enough Americans still know and cherish it.

It does not take a majority. Twenty percent of the country — awake, educated, and courageous — can reset the system. It has happened before. It can happen again.

Wake up. Stand up. Demand integrity — from leaders, from institutions, and from yourself. Because the Bubba effect will not end until Americans reclaim the duty that has always belonged to them: preserving the republic for the next generation.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Grim warning: Bad-faith Israel critics duck REAL questions

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

Bad-faith attacks on Israel and AIPAC warp every debate. Real answers emerge only when people set aside scripts and ask what serves America’s long-term interests.

The search for truth has always required something very much in short supply these days: honesty. Not performative questions, not scripted outrage, not whatever happens to be trending on TikTok, but real curiosity.

Some issues, often focused on foreign aid, AIPAC, or Israel, have become hotbeds of debate and disagreement. Before we jump into those debates, however, we must return to a simpler, more important issue: honest questioning. Without it, nothing in these debates matters.

Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

The phrase “just asking questions” has re-entered the zeitgeist, and that’s fine. We should always question power. But too many of those questions feel preloaded with someone else’s answer. If the goal is truth, then the questions should come from a sincere desire to understand, not from a hunt for a villain.

Honest desire for truth is the only foundation that can support a real conversation about these issues.

Truth-seeking is real work

Right now, plenty of people are not seeking the truth at all. They are repeating something they heard from a politician on cable news or from a stranger on TikTok who has never opened a history book. That is not a search for answers. That is simply outsourcing your own thought.

If you want the truth, you need to work for it. You cannot treat the world like a Marvel movie where the good guy appears in a cape and the villain hisses on command. Real life does not give you a neat script with the moral wrapped up in two hours.

But that is how people are approaching politics now. They want the oppressed and the oppressor, the heroic underdog and the cartoon villain. They embrace this fantastical framing because it is easier than wrestling with reality.

This framing took root in the 1960s when the left rebuilt its worldview around colonizers and the colonized. Overnight, Zionism was recast as imperialism. Suddenly, every conflict had to fit the same script. Today’s young activists are just recycling the same narrative with updated graphics. Everything becomes a morality play. No nuance, no context, just the comforting clarity of heroes and villains.

Bad-faith questions

This same mindset is fueling the sudden obsession with Israel, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in particular. You hear it from members of Congress and activists alike: AIPAC pulls the strings, AIPAC controls the government, AIPAC should register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The questions are dramatic, but are they being asked in good faith?

FARA is clear. The standard is whether an individual or group acts under the direction or control of a foreign government. AIPAC simply does not qualify.

Here is a detail conveniently left out of these arguments: Dozens of domestic organizations — Armenian, Cuban, Irish, Turkish — lobby Congress on behalf of other countries. None of them registers under FARA because — like AIPAC — they are independent, domestic organizations.

If someone has a sincere problem with the structure of foreign lobbying, fair enough. Let us have that conversation. But singling out AIPAC alone is not a search for truth. It is bias dressed up as bravery.

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

If someone wants to question foreign aid to Israel, fine. Let’s have that debate. But let’s ask the right questions. The issue is not the size of the package but whether the aid advances our interests. What does the United States gain? Does the investment strengthen our position in the region? How does it compare to what we give other nations? And do we examine those countries with the same intensity?

The real target

These questions reflect good-faith scrutiny. But narrowing the entire argument to one country or one dollar amount misses the larger problem. If someone objects to the way America handles foreign aid, the target is not Israel. The target is the system itself — an entrenched bureaucracy, poor transparency, and decades-old commitments that have never been re-examined. Those problems run through programs around the world.

If you want answers, you need to broaden the lens. You have to be willing to put aside the movie script and confront reality. You have to hold yourself to a simple rule: Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

That is the only way this country ever gets clarity on foreign aid, influence, alliances, and our place in the world. Questioning is not just allowed. It is essential. But only if it is honest.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

A nation unravels when its shared culture is the first thing to go

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

Texas now hosts Quran-first academies, Sharia-compliant housing schemes, and rapidly multiplying mosques — all part of a movement building a self-contained society apart from the country around it.

It is time to talk honestly about what is happening inside America’s rapidly growing Muslim communities. In city after city, large pockets of newcomers are choosing to build insulated enclaves rather than enter the broader American culture.

That trend is accelerating, and the longer we ignore it, the harder it becomes to address.

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world.

America has always welcomed people of every faith and people from every corner of the world, but the deal has never changed: You come here and you join the American family. You are free to honor your traditions, keep your faith, but you must embrace the Constitution as the supreme law of the land. You melt into the shared culture that allows all of us to live side by side.

Across the country, this bargain is being rejected by Islamist communities that insist on building a parallel society with its own rules, its own boundaries, and its own vision for how life should be lived.

Texas illustrates the trend. The state now has roughly 330 mosques. At least 48 of them were built in just the last 24 months. The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex alone has around 200 Islamic centers. Houston has another hundred or so. Many of these communities have no interest in blending into American life.

This is not the same as past waves of immigration. Irish, Italian, Korean, Mexican, and every other group arrived with pride in their heritage. Still, they also raised American flags and wanted their children to be part of the country’s future. They became doctors, small-business owners, teachers, and soldiers. They wanted to be Americans.

What we are watching now is not the melting pot. It is isolation by design.

Parallel societies do not end well

More than 300 fundamentalist Islamic schools now operate full-time across the country. Many use Quran-first curricula that require students to spend hours memorizing religious texts before they ever reach math or science. In Dallas, Brighter Horizons Academy enrolls more than 1,700 students and draws federal support while operating on a social model that keeps children culturally isolated.

Then there is the Epic City project in Collin and Hunt counties — 402 acres originally designated only for Muslim buyers, with Sharia-compliant financing and a mega-mosque at the center. After public outcry and state investigations, the developers renamed it “The Meadows,” but a new sign does not erase the original intent. It is not a neighborhood. It is a parallel society.

Americans should not hesitate to say that parallel societies are dangerous. Europe tried this experiment, and the results could not be clearer. In Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, entire neighborhoods now operate under their own cultural rules, some openly hostile to Western norms. When citizens speak up, they are branded bigots for asserting a basic right: the ability to live safely in their own communities.

A crisis of confidence

While this separation widens, another crisis is unfolding at home. A recent Gallup survey shows that about 40% of American women ages 18 to 39 would leave the country permanently if given the chance. Nearly half of a rising generation — daughters, sisters, soon-to-be mothers — no longer believe this nation is worth building a future in.

And who shapes the worldview of young boys? Their mothers. If a mother no longer believes America is home, why would her child grow up ready to defend it?

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world. If we lose confidence in our own national identity at the same time that we allow separatist enclaves to spread unchecked, the outcome is predictable. Europe is already showing us what comes next: cultural fracture, political radicalization, and the slow death of national unity.

Brandon Bell / Staff | Getty Images

Stand up and tell the truth

America welcomes Muslims. America defends their right to worship freely. A Muslim who loves the Constitution, respects the rule of law, and wants to raise a family in peace is more than welcome in America.

But an Islamist movement that rejects assimilation, builds enclaves governed by its own religious framework, and treats American law as optional is not simply another participant in our melting pot. It is a direct challenge to it. If we refuse to call this problem out out of fear of being called names, we will bear the consequences.

Europe is already feeling those consequences — rising conflict and a political class too paralyzed to admit the obvious. When people feel their culture, safety, and freedoms slipping away, they will follow anyone who promises to defend them. History has shown that over and over again.

Stand up. Speak plainly. Be unafraid. You can practice any faith in this country, but the supremacy of the Constitution and the Judeo-Christian moral framework that shaped it is non-negotiable. It is what guarantees your freedom in the first place.

If you come here and honor that foundation, welcome. If you come here to undermine it, you do not belong here.

Wake up to what is unfolding before the consequences arrive. Because when a nation refuses to say what is true, the truth eventually forces its way in — and by then, it is always too late.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.