Unless current trends are reversed, societal upheaval ic coming in many ways. Already there are glimmerings, perhaps better said as "rumblings."
It is reported, for example, that some wealthy are beginning to establish safe havens in foreign nations such as New Zealand and Costa Rica, fearful of an uprising in the U.S. of poor versus rich. Average Americans are unsettled as well, many wondering about prospects abroad [see link at the end of this commentary].
That of course is only one way -- an uprising against the rich -- in which upheaval may happen. It may also involve race against race, secularists versus Christians (a Kentucky clerk arrested for not signing gay-marriage certificates!), immigrants versus native born, Muslims versus Westerners, military versus citizenry. These are not out of the realm of possibility.
The fact is that the United States is not very united at the current moment and appears headed toward regional fractures (and perhaps even one day republics in a federation). This unraveling and dis-unification began in the Sixties with musicians, drugs, the hippies, Feminist Movement, and Sexual Revolution and gained momentum when abortion was legalized and prayer was taken out of public life.
In God we trust; in God we once were unified.
Distance yourself from Him -- as America has done, and as its Christian politicians have allowed (in the name of tolerance and political correctness) -- and He distances Himself from you. He is unity. The devil divides. The discernment of which of those forces we are now "closest" to is apparent in the fruits of fracture around us.
Europe, Canada, and all parts of the world likewise head to their own versions of a spirit of disunity that will break to the fore, or what might be called the Great Upheaval.
One uses a capitalized "U" because it too is a movement, a revolution; it is also a stage in purification.
The Upheaval -- perhaps one could say also "storm," or "chaos" -- is starting, perhaps, to our surprise, with the slaying of police officers. Law enforcement agents are walking around with targets on their backs, killed simply for being law-enforcement agents.
This is a startling development because it breaks down authority quickly and can lead indeed, in certain areas (chastisements will be regional), to chaos.
Most recently, on September 1, 2015: Lieutenant Joe Gliniewicz, father of four sons, was shot and killed while investigating suspicious activity in Fox Lake, Illinois. Killed for no reason.
Before that: last Friday, Darren H. Goforth, a deputy in Texas, father of two, shot and killed while refueling his cruiser near Houston; a cold-blooded hit spurred in part by media; last week, a Louisiana state trooper, Steven Vincent, of Sunset, shot fatally while conducting a traffic stop. In August, Officer Thomas LaValley, of Shrevepot, Louisiana, was killed while responding to a report of an armed man threatening his family.
Some of it "goes with the territory." Police have always been injured or killed in the line of duty. But this feels differently -- like "open season" -- and law-enforcement brass say they have become "hyper-vigilant" since the killings of two New York City police officers who were ambushed last December in their patrol car.
Police feel apprehensive when approached now by strangers; there is the sensation, as one put it, that they are "under siege." A sheriff in Houston described a "dangerous national rhetoric that is out there today" (much propelled by social media), saying it "has gotten out of control." The "Black Lives Matter" movement is cited as part of the influence. (All lives matter -- greatly.)
Graffiti has been found there in Houston at four locations, including the image above, left [see the local ABC report; prayer need].
One killer had boasted on social media that he planned to slay police in retaliation for the deaths of that young black man in the St. Louis area (where riots erupted last year and where police also have encountered violence) as well as Eric Garner, who died during an arrest by officers in Staten Island, New York. As The Los Angeles Times phrased it, "Garner's and Brown's deaths -- coming three weeks apart in 2014 -- became part of a growing public outrage toward law enforcement."
The twenty-five officers killed in assaults in America this year is similar to 2014, which saw a sharp rise from the year before.
When it comes to general Upheaval, you can toss in with that poor deranged gay-black killer who gunned down a television crew -- live on the air -- in Virginia (explicitly for racial-societal "reasons").
Many don't realize that Saint Michael the Archangel is the patron saint of police and of course he's needed in an urgent way at this particular moment. (This is his month.)
Is your local department -- the Catholic police there -- aware of this? Are prayer groups taking up their cause?
A Catholic website observes, "As the patron saint of police officers, St. Michael knows what it means to face the threat of evil and imminent danger. Saint Michael had a long history of battling the devil. Throughout Scriptures, he's the warrior angel, standing up to and defeating Satan many times. His largest challenge and triumph over evil takes place in the Book of Revelations (12:7-8) when the devil tries to revolt against God: "there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him."
And so for them we pray:
"St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the Devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly hosts, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan, and all the evil spirits, who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen."
-- September 3, 2015.
[see also: One in three Americans considering move abroad?]
[see also: original Saint Michael prayer]
