Posted on 05/08/2002 5:14:18 AM PDT by Starmaker
If the world stops believing in G-d, it won’t believe in nothing…it will believe in anything. — G.K. Chesterton
Having just celebrated my seventh Easter as a Christian, my thoughts about the condition of our nation turn more and more toward the spiritual, seeking to understand how a nation founded on the principles of G-d has come to its current state. What can be said about Christians in the U.S. today? Do we love our neighbors more now than when Jesus walked the earth? Do we reach out to help them, even if we don´t especially like them? Even if—particularly if—they´re not especially likable? How often do we visit the sick or elderly? Hey, how often do we visit our own Mom and Dad, or brothers and sisters?
As I noted recently, it is the people of faith in G-d—the cult — that should influence the surrounding culture. This is what Jesus meant when He said Christians should be salt and light to the dying world. But even a cursory observation of our nation today reveals that most of the influence has been in the opposite direction. That is, the Church has precious little influence on the world around it, but has itself been greatly influenced by that world and its customs, values and standards. New buildings, marketing principles and, above all else, numbers—attendance, budget, outreach targets contacted, etc.—have as a practical matter overtaken G-d´s call to repentance, faithfulness and holiness in the priorities of the Church. Most of us who claim His name have simply failed to live out the grace of Christ and thus influence the surrounding culture toward G-dly values and beliefs.
It occurs that this failure of Christians is eerily similar to another failure: Most citizens of this republic fail to live out its foundational principles and uphold the ideals of the Declaration and the Constitution. Just as the primary characteristic of the Church in America today is merely a ‘form of godliness,´ so, too, is the distinguishing mark of American society a mere shadow of republican liberty and citizenship. Can that be merely coincidence, or is there a connection between the two?
In both The Body and especially in How Now Shall We Live?, Charles Colson makes a strong case that it is, indeed, the believers in a holy and transcendent G-d who maintain the culture´s moral and ethical foundations, through living out their beliefs, establishing and maintaining their standards of behavior, and through their acknowledgment of an ultimate responsibility attached to their freedom.
While they were certainly not all Christian, the Founding Fathers nevertheless clearly acknowledged in their writings the necessity of those transcendent moral principles, and that a personal accountability for our actions must ever be the other side of the coin called liberty. It is noteworthy—and not coincidental—that as the therapeutic model of behavior has replaced personal accountability, public and private behavior has declined. From school shootings, mothers killing their own children and an explosion in illegitimate births to the filth that now permeates much of public language and activity, that decline can´t be simply written off as the imaginings of a religious fanatic. Even ‘liberals´ wonder what has happened.
In the late 50s and early 60s, the confluence of the civil rights movement, behavioral psychology and the remarkable increase of lawyers resulted in a fundamental shift away from our traditional American view of personal accountability. Built-in ‘excuses´ of poverty, racial discrimination and abuse began to be offered in courts as justification for a wide range of anti-social behaviors. Thanks to the spread of new psychological theories, these excuses began to be accepted in the courts. The idea that a murderer, mugger or other malcontent was sick, requiring treatment instead of punishment, became the common plaint of defense attorneys, bolstered by the ‘expert´ testimony of psychologists. The fact that every single person so exposed to abuse, poverty and/or discrimination did not engage in such behavior was apparently not considered relevant.
Looking back on the place of faith in the lives of Americans, is it not during this same period that a discrediting of Christian principles took place? This was partly the result of the civil rights movement, which rightly pointed to the failure of the church to fight against slavery and subsequent Jim Crowe segregation laws. Considering that Dr. King and many other civil rights leaders were pastors, it is ironic that the movement helped weaken Christianity in America. Our increasing faith in science, including the Darwinian myth, along with a spreading materialism, furthered the decline of Christian faith and its societal influence.
As we´ve grown more secular, the courts and legislatures have reflected our change in beliefs— Roe vs Wade represents the rejection of the Biblical principle of the sacredness of life. The attitude reflected in that decision has devastated the American moral and political foundation—remember, the right to life is the very first inalienable right Jefferson mentioned in the Declaration. Instead of the universal rule of law before which we´re all accountable, we´re now faced with a proliferation of laws for specific groups in society, like ‘hate crime´ and ‘hate speech´ legislation. Instead of life being sacred, as G-d says, we now have abortion on demand, assisted suicide and proposed baby factories for stem cell research.
Those who shape opinion in this society—the elites in politics, media, universities and business—believe that all cultural values are equal, that there is no such thing as universal truth that applies to everyone, and that the greatest wrong is to make judgments about another´s beliefs or actions. That is the postmodern and multicultural America that a powerful minority has created, and that we have accepted.
Why, then, do we still hear wails about mothers murdering their children? Or about homosexual priests molesting young boys? Or school shootings? Aren´t we supposed to ‘feel´ and understand their pain and alienation? If there is no Truth, after all, who are we to judge? Isn´t this the ‘freedom, ´ the absolute personal autonomy that the open-minded and tolerant crowd wanted? Put another way—what did we expect?
But the wails don´t come from the elites, do they? No, they´re busy justifying a mother´s murder of her children, and blaming the very standards that priests violated for the molestations, and ‘trying to understand´ the pain of young murderers…or Arab terrorists…or Palestinian maniacs. No, the shock and horror comes from those who still believe in G-d´s moral standards, and in the republic´s Founding principles of law and accountability. Yet to our shame, we continue to let amoral elites run, and ruin, our nation.
I recently came across a pretty good description of today´s society:
People today love themselves most of all. And money. And sex. They´re arrogant and obnoxious, ungrateful and sarcastic. In their youth, they disobey their parents; married, they disrespect, lie to and cheat on their spouse. Increasingly, people don´t even love their own family members. They ‘buy off´ their kids with money, cars, and ‘stuff.´ Or they leave for a trophy wife or husband. They murder their children in the bathtub, or their little brother in the backyard, or their parents in a mansion. Most have no self-control, be it food, soap operas, drugs, alcohol, sex or whatever; it´s all about their own pleasure. They belittle others, yet won´ t look at their own reckless behavior, getting people pregnant, giving and getting sexually transmitted diseases, driving drunk or stoned, etc. They don´t believe in the Christian G-d, but are continually coming up with some new ‘spirituality,´ crystals or pyramids or some such, all the while railing at the ‘hypocrisy´ of Christians.
Not flattering, I grant you; but does it not ring true?
You agree? Then you may be surprised that the above description is from the Bible, and was written almost 2,000 years ago; it is a paraphrase of II Timothy 3:1-9. If you are a non-believer, I dare you to read it. Try the modern English NIV translation, and see if doesn´t read like this morning´s newspaper.
Though modern 'liberalism' is supposedly all about equality, justice and freedom, we all have less freedom, less justice and less equality now than forty years ago…and it keeps getting worse! Yet we still refuse to admit our mistake.
The mistake is that Christians failed to live out their beliefs, allowing man´s ‘new´ ideas and philosophies to replace those beliefs as society´s foundation. But those ideas are as old as the Garden. We traded the Founding moral and political principles for humanism, moral relativism, meaningless ‘spirituality´ and a fragmented society.
Don´t you think it´s time we traded back?
To comment on this article or express your opinion directly to the author, you are invited to e-mail Paul at pescates@earthlink.net .
2 Timothy 3:7 Always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.
Once you recognize that, the practice shouldn't be a matter of redicule but one to understand and honor.
Have fun!
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