Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Does Anybody Here Fear God?

   I am not sure if I my impressions are correct, but it seems to me that Christians have over the last couple of years not been so outspoken about the war of culture, or the war between cultures, that rages in our society.  At least I don't seem to hear that buzz word very often these days.  On the other hand it seems to me that a vigorous offensive is taking place culturally from the side of the anti-Christians.  They might not call themselves that as a group, but it seems to me that they fit that description, or at least fit the description of being anti Bible believers or against those who think the Bible is true and is to be obeyed.
    I see evidence of this in at least three areas.  For the sake of alliteration I will call these areas Science, Sex, and Speech.  While the right wing seems to be caught up in an almost hysterical attack against the left in regards to big government, Obama care, the deficit, and taxes, Christian folks are being attacked and undermined by an insidious attempt to demean their intellect, marginalize their morality, and silence their witness.
    Making the assumption that there are Christians on both sides of the political spectrum, I see this cultural challenge not simply aligned with political parties.  Although it seems obvious the political left may find it helpful to applaud these attacks in the hope that the caricature of their opponents as Luddites, Victorian prudes, and unprincipled proselytizers will pigeon hole right wing politicians and their followers as idiots and neuter them politically.  This is not so innocent as to simply mock or ridicule opponents; the vitriolic rhetoric is  a call for ostracism, isolation, and to classify us (Bible believing Christians) as dangerous.  I see it as a threat to our freedom of religion and freedom of speech, and an attempt to disenfranchise a large section of the electorate from a meaningful role in the body politic.
    Satirical humor and condescending mockery are a large part of our modern entertainment culture, and one can see its effect on teens and young adults who are especially vulnerable to not want to be identified with any group that can be so easily set up as a joke.  The things many, if not most of us, admire are held up by the anti-Christian forces as that which they claim they are defending against us; namely the progress of science, medicine, and intellectual achievement, as well as justice, and the right to ones own private religious or non-religious convictions.  This fits right in with those pundits who have tried to put sincere believers of Christianity in the same boat with Islamic Fundamentalists and classify us both as potentially violent and culturally backward.
    This onslaught has a chilling effect on believers, it fills them with self doubt, and all it takes of course is for some current example of extreme religious behavior to make us want to shy away from any possible association with the nut cases.  The mass murderer in Norway, who claimed he was doing what he did to protect Christianity, was by his own confession no Christian at all.  Yet that careful discernment was not so readily made by the popular press.  Most of the history of this nation is one in which a large group of Christians stood against totalitarian tendencies, advocated religious freedom, advocated freedom from slavery, and advocated compassion for individuals and support of civil rights for all.  At the same time the Nazis claimed to be Christian, and the KKK claimed to be Christian. Neither of which had anything to do with the teachings of Jesus.  Thankfully Christians did not renounce their faith because of that horrendous misuse of our name or heritage.  Amateur dabblers in history often try to discredit Christianity with all the excesses of Roman Emperors, Popes, and rulers of the Holy Roman Empire, which I learned was never really  holy, roman, or an empire.
    While rejecting their cartooning of us I freely admit that the present agenda of the anti-Christians is abhorrent to me, and I hope to any who profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and claim to hold the Bible as God's Word. What they claim to be science is questionable because they have made evolution absolutive, but they are not the bit embarrassed by that. Yet science to be science is always up for question.  How can you explain the vigorous quest for scientific discovery and medical breakthroughs pursued by Christians and by Christian doctors, even missionary medicine if Christians are so opposed to science?  At least since the time of the Reformation there just isn't a record of Christians holding back progress when it comes to technology, industry, medicine, or justice for that matter.  It is science without morality that has been the great terror of the previous century as evidenced by the atheism of the communists and the racism of the Nazis.
    The issue of sex is now a great battlefield because it has been removed from the forum of morality and placed in the forum of justice.  Abortion and homosexuality are the two pertinent issues here.  The vehemence and animosity shown by the adherents of sex without morality is amazing to behold and seeks to demonize, marginalize and even criminalize those who not only speak out against it but to resist its normalization.  We are a great nation for freedom and justice, but once the definitions of those words are changed so they become tied only to personal preference without regard to community, morality, truth, and life the world is turned on its head.  Our  young people have become ideological suckers for this kind of thinking.  When political forces  are put in power, bankrolled by aberrant sex groups, they foist a moral agenda of a minority that seeks to crush their opposition and to keep it silent through legal and economic coercion.  This is a threat to the freedom of religion and the freedom of speech.
    The emotional turmoil of homosexuals doesn't come from the disapproval of Christians but from their own internal conflict with that which they instinctively know is wrong and perverted.  Their self-hatred explodes into a angst that seeks relief in reordering society, law, and cultural acceptance.  Whatever laws are changed that internal conflict will not be dissipated but will erupt from time to time and person to person when the reality of a broken identity and illegitimate sexuality bursts forth from the numbing shell of a sycophantic but morally bankrupt popular culture.
    In the area of free speech I see a threat from the voices of people like Michael Weinstein who has a foundation to essentially stop Evangelical Christians from sharing their faith with anyone who is offended by some one or group who seeks to tell them, or even invite them, to something they might not wish to hear.  Christians must defend their right to proselytize in a free society.  I have every sympathy with Mr. Weinstein about (or against) anyone who uses subterfuge or coercion, but he creates demons and boogie men where none exist, and what is distressing is how government, military officials, and politicians have no integrity or backbone to resist his threats.  It will take some strong court suits to protect our freedoms.
    You might not think things are desperate.  You might not think there is much of a threat.  Whatever you think about climate change it is foolish to think that the social, moral, and political climate hasn't changed.  The frog in the pot when the water starts to boil, the man who refuses to admit the water is rising as flood threatens his home, the miner who pays no attention to the dead canary are all pictures of so many of us.  My call is not to go back to some pre-revolutionary racist slavery America, as if that were the picture of the "good old days."  My call is to realize the culture that gave us a foundation to change from that evil past is being eroded to the point where we will not know what truth is, not know that which is true justice.  Where we now call evil good, and good evil.  Does anybody here fear God?

1 comment:

  1. Randy, thanks for writing this. It's inspirational! And it is a message that needs to be HEARD!

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