“Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.” (Ezekiel 33:7)
Brothers and sisters, America is under fire. Not from invading armies. Not from missiles launched from some foreign shore. The battle confronting America is more subtle, and in many ways more dangerous. It is a battle of ideas.
It is being fought for the mind, heart, and soul of this country. It reaches into our schools and universities, our churches and government, our media and entertainment, our corporations, our homes, and increasingly the screens our children carry in their hands.
At stake is something far greater than the outcome of the next election. This is a battle over what Americans will believe about truth, God, freedom, human nature, morality, family, responsibility, and the proper role of government. It is a battle over what kind of nation we will leave to our children. And make no mistake: this battle did not begin yesterday, and it will not be settled in a single election cycle.
Infiltration From Within: How a Nation Can Be Changed Without Being Conquered
History teaches us a sobering lesson: a nation does not always have to be conquered from the outside. Sometimes it is transformed from within.
Institutions change. Language is redefined. History is reinterpreted. Long-standing moral convictions become objects of ridicule. Ideas once regarded as radical gradually become mainstream, while beliefs held by generations before us are increasingly portrayed as backward, oppressive, or dangerous.
This is the nature of ideological warfare. It rarely arrives wearing a uniform. It comes through ideas, language, education, culture, entertainment, policy, and institutions. And often it arrives wrapped in appealing words: justice, equality, compassion, tolerance, inclusion, and progress.
Those words can represent legitimate and noble concerns. Christians should care deeply about justice, compassion, human dignity, and the treatment of our neighbors. But words can also be detached from objective truth and biblical morality. When that happens, familiar language can become the vehicle for an entirely different worldview. Jesus warned:
“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing.” (Matthew 7:15)
Deception rarely announces itself as deception. It succeeds precisely because it looks close enough to something good to be accepted. That principle applies not only to theology. It applies to ideology.
The Art of Ideological Warfare: Capture the Mind and You Can Change a Nation
Traditional warfare captures territory. Ideological warfare captures minds. Change what people believe about truth, and eventually you change what they believe about morality. Change their understanding of morality, and you change the laws and institutions they are willing to accept. Change what children are taught about history, family, authority, faith, liberty, responsibility, and human identity, and within a generation you can change the character of an entire nation.
That is why the struggle before us cannot be reduced simply to Republican versus Democrat or one election against another. Scripture tells us:
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Ephesians 6:12)
Our neighbors are not the enemy. Americans who vote differently from us are not the enemy. People who have been persuaded by ideas we believe are wrong are not the enemy. But ideas have consequences. Worldviews shape individuals. Individuals shape institutions. Institutions shape cultures. And cultures eventually shape nations.
That is why the Christian response cannot be hatred, intimidation, rage, or political idolatry. Our weapons must be truth, discernment, courage, prayer, wisdom, grace, and faithfulness.
That conviction lies at the heart of Under Fire: before we can defend freedom intelligently, we must understand the ideas competing to define it.
America Fast Asleep: How a Nation Can Sleep Through Its Own Transformation
Here is the question that should trouble us: Where were we while all of this was happening? For decades, many Americans became comfortable.
Prosperity made vigilance seem unnecessary. Entertainment kept us distracted. Parents became overwhelmed by work and daily responsibilities. Churches sometimes avoided difficult cultural questions because controversy was uncomfortable. Citizens assumed the freedoms inherited from previous generations would somehow perpetuate themselves.
But freedom does not maintain itself. It never has.
Jesus described an enemy who came while people slept and “sowed tares among the wheat.” (Matthew 13:25)
Notice when the enemy acted: While men slept. While America was distracted, institutions changed. While parents were busy, other voices gained greater influence over their children. While churches avoided difficult conversations, the surrounding culture increasingly supplied its own definitions of truth, morality, sexuality, justice, identity, family, and freedom. A civilization can undergo enormous transformation while its citizens are preoccupied with everything except the transformation itself. That is why vigilance matters.
The High Cost of Silence
Many Americans know something is wrong. They feel it. They see confusion in the culture. They encounter it in schools, workplaces, media, entertainment, government, and online. They discuss it privately with friends and family. And yet millions remain silent. Why? Some are exhausted. Some fear what speaking publicly might cost them. Some believe one person cannot possibly make a difference. Others are so overwhelmed by work, social media, entertainment, financial pressures, and the constant noise of modern life that they have little energy left to investigate what is happening around them.
And some Christians have been persuaded that speaking plainly about difficult moral or cultural issues is somehow incompatible with love. But Scripture presents a different picture. Silence is not always love, and silence is never neutral.
God appointed Ezekiel as a watchman (Ezekiel 33:7).
The watchman did not create the danger. His responsibility was to recognize it and sound the alarm. A watchman who sees danger approaching but refuses to speak because the warning might make people uncomfortable has abandoned the very purpose of the watchtower. There are moments when love comforts. There are also moments when love warns. Wisdom requires knowing the difference.
Who Is Raising Your Children? A Question Every Christian Parent Must Answer
Perhaps no question is more important for Christian parents today: Who is raising your children? The instinctive answer is, “We are.” But consider how many hours children spend under the influence of schools, social media, streaming platforms, music, celebrities, influencers, peers, video games, algorithms, and digital culture. Every one of those influences communicates a worldview. Whether parents recognize it or not, children are constantly being taught something about God, sexuality, authority, family, race, justice, history, government, human identity, morality, and truth itself. There is no completely neutral worldview.
Somebody will help fill that intellectual and spiritual space. If parents surrender that responsibility, someone else will gladly accept it. Scripture places the responsibility for forming children squarely upon the family:
“And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children.” (Deuteronomy 6:7)
Proverbs tells us:
“Train up a child in the way he should go.” (Proverbs 22:6)
And Paul instructs fathers to raise their children:
“In the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” (Ephesians 6:4)
Christian parents cannot outsource discipleship and then be surprised when another worldview fills the vacuum. Whoever shapes the next generation helps shape the future of the nation. Period.
The Slow Death of a Civilization
Civilizations rarely collapse because of one decision made on one terrible afternoon. Decline is usually slower. A little truth is surrendered here. A little liberty there.
A responsibility once carried by families or communities is gradually transferred elsewhere. Moral boundaries become negotiable. Faith retreats from public life. Historical memory fades. Personal responsibility weakens. Government becomes increasingly expected to solve problems that politics alone can never solve.
No individual compromise appears large enough to threaten a civilization. That is precisely what makes gradual decline so difficult to recognize. Freedom seldom disappears through one dramatic act of surrender. More often, it erodes through a thousand small concessions, each appearing tolerable when viewed alone, until citizens awaken to discover how much has changed.
While Men Slept: A Warning to This Generation
Those words from Matthew should ring in our ears: While men slept. While fathers slept, who discipled their sons? While mothers slept, who shaped their daughters? While pastors slept, who discipled their congregations? While citizens slept, who shaped their institutions? While Christians remained silent, who supplied the culture’s definitions of truth? God has not called His people to panic. He has not called us to hatred. He has not called us to make an idol out of politics. But neither has He called us to indifference.
Jesus said His followers are “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world” (Matthew 5:13-16).
Salt preserves only when it comes into contact with what needs preserving. Light fulfills its purpose only when it shines into darkness. Retreat is not the answer. Faithful engagement is.
Who Will Go for Us? The Question Every Generation Must Answer
The words of Isaiah confront our generation:
“Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” (Isaiah 6:8)
Isaiah answered:
“Here am I; send me.”
That question has not disappeared. Who will teach truth to the next generation? Who will speak when remaining silent would be easier? Who will study history well enough to recognize old ideologies when they return wearing new language? Who will defend biblical truth without descending into hatred? Who will defend liberty without turning politics into a religion? Who will walk onto the cultural battlefield equipped with Scripture, wisdom, courage, discernment, grace, and love? Somebody has to stand. Somebody has to teach. Somebody has to warn. Somebody has to go. Every generation eventually faces the same question:
Is the inheritance handed to us worth preserving for those who come after us? Our generation is answering that question right now.
How Under Fire Answers the Call
The warnings above are not offered merely to provoke concern; they explain why this message had to become a book. If the battle is ideological, spiritual, cultural, and generational, then Christians and citizens need more than outrage. They need discernment, historical memory, biblical courage, and a clear understanding of the ideas competing to define America’s future.
That is why I wrote Under Fire: A U.S. Marine’s Stand Against Democratic Socialism and Neo-Communism. I did not write it simply to add another political argument to an already deafening national shouting match. I wrote it because I believe Americans, and Christians in particular, must understand the ideological battle for America’s culture that is unfolding around them. We need to understand where influential political ideas originated and how they developed. We need to recognize how ideology can become something resembling a substitute religion, offering political salvation where Christianity proclaims spiritual redemption.
We need to understand what happens when government becomes the final authority, truth becomes negotiable, families weaken, faith retreats from public life, and a generation loses enough historical memory that it can no longer recognize ideas humanity has encountered before.
But recognizing the battle is only the beginning. Under Fire is ultimately a call to courage, discernment, faithfulness, and action.
Christians must learn again to take “every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).
Parents must disciple their children. Pastors must preach the whole counsel of God, including the parts that make modern culture uncomfortable. Citizens must understand the freedoms they inherited and the responsibilities that accompany them. Believers must put on the whole armor of God and refuse to surrender truth simply because truth has fallen out of fashion.
And all of us must remember the warning of Romans 13:11:
“Now it is high time to awake out of sleep.”
Perhaps no command is more appropriate for this moment. Wake up. Not in fear. Not in hatred. Not in despair. But in truth. In prayer. In discernment. In courage. In faithfulness. America is under fire. But the battle is not over. Our institutions may be struggling. Our culture may be confused. Many Americans may remain unaware of the ideological forces competing for their allegiance. But history, and Scripture, reminds us that extraordinary change often begins with ordinary men and women who are willing to stand when their moment arrives. The question God placed before Isaiah still confronts us:
“Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”
And now the question belongs to us.
Who will answer the call?
Semper Fidelis
