The national debt of the United States government is rapidly closing in on $37 trillion. Given that the nominal U.S. GDP is only $29.35 trillion, we owe significantly more than our economy produces. The interest payment alone on the debt is now the third-highest line-item expense, just after Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security and just ahead of Defense. It even surpasses our total federal tax revenue.
In addition to the federal government, state and local debt is another $3.2 trillion, and total credit card debt is currently over $1.28 trillion. In all, total indebtedness of the United States, public and private, sits at nearly $105 trillion. Though it is increasingly obvious our national debt will never be repaid, the deficit continues to grow at an alarming rate.
These numbers are simply too big to understand. To help put them in perspective, one trillion seconds is over 31,688 years. Our debt is now 100 times that number.
To put it mildly, this bodes ill for our future. Out-of-control debt has been a significant factor in the collapse of every major world power in history. For example, the French Revolution was triggered by a fiscal crisis, which sparked civil war and left between 300,000 and 500,000 dead, not including those killed abroad in foreign wars.
With apologies to Dave Ramsey, there are times when a certain amount of debt makes sense. Businesses use it to launch and expand. People take on debt to buy a home or in emergencies. Governments take on debt in times of emergency. Overall, Scripture clearly warns against debt. According to Proverbs 22:7, “The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.” Paul commands in Romans 13:8, “Owe no one anything, except to love each other.” God’s assessment of the approach our government is taking is just as clear: “The wicked borrows but does not pay back” (Psalm 37:21).
In the late 1930s, sociologist Pitirim Sorokin distinguished between cultures that were “sensate” and those that were “ideational.” Sensate cultures filter that reality is primarily sensory, and that truth is found through empirical observation. These cultures pursued sensory pleasure, material comfort, and immediate gratification.
Ideational cultures are oriented beyond the material world to ideals, or truths found in philosophy or divine revelation. Ideational societies aim at the future, with a focus on self-discipline and aligning life and culture with eternal truths. While ideational cultures can focus so much on the spiritual that they neglect the material, they also tend to encourage delayed gratification and building for the future.
Originally built on ideals and aimed at the future, America is now sensate and oriented around the demand for immediate gratification. This explains not only the incredible levels of personal and federal debt, but also the decline of marriage, widespread addictions to pornography and gambling, and the serious drop-off in the birth rate.
A nation captive to short-term sensate thinking looks primarily to the government for all that it needs and desires. We want things, and we look to the government to give them. Politicians want things and fund them without counting the cost. As the government, it can spend and spend without considering the burden placed on future generations.
A society with little vision for the future inevitably becomes sensate. As the British anthropologist Joseph Unwin put it, “In these cultures, life is for now.” There is no long-term solution for the national debt crisis without first dealing with the worldview at the root of the problem. The shift toward an ideational culture involves the willingness to delay gratification. That only results from reattaching to eternal truths that point us beyond the here and now.
A robust vision of the Gospel of the Kingdom, lived out through families and local communities, will rejuvenate the intermediate institutions of society. Government overreach can be mitigated when people who rely on the government can look elsewhere, especially the Church and other intermediate institutions of civil society. This begins with Christians who are content to be “weird,” whose affections and loyalties are ordered by Kingdom priorities rather than the sensate priorities of a culture enslaved by debt.
Originally published at BreakPoint.
John Stonestreet serves as president of the Colson Center, equipping Christians to live with clarity, confidence, and courage in today’s cultural moment. A sought-after speaker and author on faith, culture, theology, worldview, education, and apologetics, he has co-authored five books, including A Practical Guide to Culture, A Student’s Guide to Culture, and Restoring All Things. John hosts Breakpoint, the nationally syndicated commentary founded by Chuck Colson, and The Point, a daily one-minute feature on worldview and cultural issues. Previously, he held leadership roles at Summit Ministries and taught biblical studies at Bryan College (TN). He lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with his wife, Sarah, and their four children.
Glenn Sunshine is a professor of history at Central Connecticut State University, a Senior Fellow of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and the founder and president of Every Square Inch Ministries. He is a speaker, the author of several books, and co-author with Jerry Trousdale of The Kingdom Unleashed.
