Being a lifelong follower of Jesus and a church Elder, I’m particularly sensitive to critiques of “the church” as an institution. I love the Church. In many ways, it’s the hope of the world, in my view. Even with that affection, I recognize that many of those criticisms have been earned. We can, in rapid succession, recite the names of men who used the church for their own selfish ambition or wanton cravings. We can itemize the not-quite-right theologies to the absolute heresies that have hurt people. I acknowledge all of that as true and endeavor to route out every false teaching and false teacher for the glory of God and for the protection of people.
The Christian religion was the dominant culture-making force in the Western World for centuries. As it made mistakes and committed sins along the way, various forces demanded accountability from Christians and the culture they created. That accountability was good and healthy to cause changes and reforms.
The church was held accountable when it ruled. who do we hold accountable now?
That history leads to me a question for today. Who – what cultural phenomenon or institution – do we hold accountable for the wreckage we live in right now?
Christian cultural norms haven’t been dominant in at least 50 years. The culture threw off those standards piece-by-piece over decades. I would argue that the process of marginalizing or retiring Christianity found its capstone in 2015 when 5 judges – with the culture largely capitulating – declared that the fundamental building block of every human society, the institution of marriage, was now to be defined by new secular, progressive “values.”
Christianity, for now, has largely been vanquished – its lessons, values, and practices subjugated. We did have one round of a Culture War, and Christianity lost, but who defeated it? What values system now governs the Western World – especially in my context in the US?
Surely this is true: someone’s values will predominate and animate every people and every age. Nature abhors a vacuum – even a cultural one. The concept of neutrality is a myth. Values, morals, and standards permeate all cultures. It’s only ever a question of, “which values” or “whose values?”
I am going to argue that Secular Progressivism got us here, and I think it’s time the Secular Progressives have demanded of them the same questions that people used to ask The Church.
So, one more time, what values have presided over this cultural degraded rot that we’re in? I am going to argue that Secular Progressivism got us here, and I think it’s time the Secular Progressives have demanded of them the same questions that people used to ask The Church.
If Christianity was doing a poor job of galvanizing a culture that produced human flourishing, what can we say of the values that replaced Christianity and the job they’re doing.
Let’s make no mistake: Secular Progressive Leftism is in charge and has been for decades. Look at every institution that makes up a culture. From the classroom, the writer’s room and the newsroom to the board room and the committee rooms of Congress, where Christianity was ejected, Secularism has infected. Isn’t it time for a reckoning of how they’ve done with their power?
What have we wrought from our new cultural, governing philosophy?
A record-high share of 40-year-olds in the U.S. have never been married.
Families are in shambles. Young people delay marriage to later and later ages. Divorce is common, and its devastating effects on children disregarded.
Our people are falling apart physically and mentally. For the first time in our history, life expectancy is FALLING. Most of that metric is driven by so-called “depths of despair” – suicides, drug overdoses and complications related to other addictions.
We’re more depressed than ever, more high-anxiety than ever, and generally have more foreboding about the future than ever. Consequently, we’re the most medicated people in human history. All of that comes before we talk about being a people who so dominated poverty that our most acute public health issue is obesity.
Last year, only 15% of high school students tested at or above the proficient level for reading. Only EIGHT PERCENT test at that level for math.
The education system is embarrassing. The schools aren’t doing the fundamental job of keeping students on track to just READ, WRITE, and do MATH at the appropriate level. The Baltimore school system is particularly sad, but its statistics are becoming too common. Last year, only 15% of high school students tested at or above the proficient level for reading. Only EIGHT PERCENT test at that level for math. I could level various criticisms at Christian schools and homeschools as well, but that should not and cannot obscure this reality: the public school system is failing to do its fundamental job.
While the outcomes of the education system at the primary level is discomfiting, we have a higher education landscape that hasn’t evolved to meet the needs of the job market, leaving a people $1 trillion in student loans debt and many poorly equipped to make the money to claw out of that debt.
Those educational failings are all about outcomes, though. They come before recognizing children are sexually abused in schools far more often than we realize.
Our artistic establishment – with some exceptions – ranges from transient to boring. A culture that once produced Gone with the Wind, Unchained Melody, the Brooklyn Bridge, The Catcher and the Rye and Impressionism now gives us mostly thoughtless dreck in the theaters, Cardi B’s “WAP,” functional but ugly architecture, and endless maudlin paperbacks.
Corporations have no purpose but profit, and the federal government cannot – very literally – complete the minimal task of writing and passing a budget.
Isn’t it time to demand some answers?
The people know our culture is crumbling, and has no confidence the situation is going to turn around. That is where we find ourselves. Isn’t it time to demand some answers?
The Secular Progressive Leftist age is imploding on itself, whether we demand accountability from its purveyors or not. Their values weren’t worth reproducing and they’re not.
So, what happens next? It’s going to be up to us, Biblically faithful Christians, to come back better than we were, and be worthy of the cultural hegemony we once had. That starts in your own habits, attitudes, and homes. The back half of my life, I think and hope, will be contributing to a culture that crumbled and rebuilding something that serves humanity and the people to come after us.
