A Virtual Church

The cheese stands alone

September 11, 2025

Voices from all quarters, except Fox, are beginning to express concern about a global shift that could impact us more than we think. Thinkers and writers Fareed Zakaria, Tom Nichols, even Frank Bruni are beginning with the media pictures to tell the story.

Photos of Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and Kim Jong Un are gathered around a table like one would find in a gentlemen’s club. Sipping drinks, they look like it’s 5:00 somewhere. More recent pictures show Narendra Modi at the table with the others. A great summit of leaders across the globe are aligning against the west, in particular Donald Trump, celebrating their emerging leadership on the world stage and the diminishing value of relationship with the US.

Bruni recalls that it was Dwight Eisenhower, Republican President of the US and former Supreme Commander of the Allies in WWII, upon watching the Russians launch Sputnik I in October of 1957 declared there was “vivid evidence” of the technological superiority in rocketry of our Cold War Enemy. That was sufficient impetus in 1958, for Congress to pass the National Defense Act, which along with the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health “made America into the world’s undisputed leader in science and technology.”

The emphasis on science, technology, invention and innovation made America a superpower on the world stage for almost 80 years. In one year, Trump has undermined all things science and innovation to the point where US University and Research Centers are beginning to fall from the ranks of the elite and be replaced by Chinese Research Centers. The coalition of China, Russia, North Korea and now, India, does not bode well for the future of American greatness.

We are losing the support of historic allies and global friends. India is a prime example of the loss of friendship. Democracies with whom we have had close ties are now stressed as they consider their own futures. The brain drain is beginning. Western allies are realizing that the US is not a reliable trade partner and not a friend who can be counted on

We have abandoned Ukraine, a fellow democracy for the Russians to destroy. This is a sin. The cozy chats of a US President fawning over a murderous thug, aka Putin, resulted in bombings in Kiev killing children in schools and hospitals and demolishing government buildings and churches. Putin plays Trump like a violin. He is the puppet master and Trump is left twisting in the wind.

The global impact of quickly shifting alliances is not good for maintaining peace and prosperity in the world. Russia, China, and North Korea are not our friends.

Destruction of the West is their motive. That truth is something we seem hell bent on ignoring.

Besides the animus growing toward the US in the new alliances of the east, our historic western allies are becoming skeptical of our willingness to support them. They feel the impact of tariffs and they do not see a trustworthy world partner. They are having meetings of their own, without us to, plan how they will go forward together. We are increasingly on our own.

The current state of affairs appears to suggest that we are committing suicide. As the president touts making America great again, he and his minions are destroying a lot of what made America great. This destruction is something we are doing to ourselves.

As we worry and resist the domestic plan of the president’s agenda, keeping one eye on the global impacts of this presidency are necessary. Isolationism is not a good policy, as we learned in WWII. We learned it the hard way. Our world is interconnected in ways beyond our politics.

Climate change, AI, air and water pollution, nuclear proliferation, welfare of all people and all creation affects every person on the planet - every country and every person. Destruction of the cooperation needed to address existential issues that impact us is a stupid and self-defeating game.  

When internal resources dry up and external forces rise, we become more vulnerable. The real fight is not on city streets or in Hyundai factories, the fight is maintaining US influence on the world stage. To be increasingly seen as buffoons, yielding their position of prominence and power for the “want of a horseshoe nail,” is as woeful as it was in the proverb.

The Farmer in the Dell is a children’s rhyme in which everybody in the story takes on a relationship until we get to the cheese. Our big orange cheese stands alone and the story ends, the music ends, and the world turns.

Lib Campbell is a retired Methodist pastor, retreat leader, columnist and host of the blogsite www.avirtualchurch.com. She can be contacted at libcam05@gmail.com 

 

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