The darkness of Postmodern, post-Christian American culture permeates our thinking about two fundamental axioms of the Christian faith—the sanctity of marriage and the sanctity of life. Both axioms of our faith are being challenged and both confront our consistency as Christians as we proclaim the infallible truth of God’s Word to a culture that is not listening.
Timothy Keller, the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer; he is 70 years old. Keller is one of my favorite authors, and several of his books have had a profound influence on my life and ministry. He recently published an article in The Atlantic honestly reflecting on his imminent death.
Equality: An important and foundational term in America’s democratic–republic, central to our founding documents—the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Jefferson’s triumphant declaration, “all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights . . .” is complemented by the Bill of Rights, which articulates the equal rights that all citizens are guaranteed. Equality is also an important biblical concept.
Virtually everyone agrees that a democratic society must maintain a high degree of trust or the democratic institutions that undergird that society will collapse. As we begin 2021, the American democratic-republic is in a serious crisis—a crisis of trust. Trust takes many forms. People may trust each other but distrust institutions like the federal government or mainstream media, for example. Furthermore, COVID-19 is testing America’s institutions in ways not seen for decades. Trust in government in America in 2021 is fairly low compared with some other wealthy societies.
In 1947 C.S. Lewis published The Abolition of Man, in which he charted the “negation of human dignity in the name of progress.” He lived long enough to see the accuracy of his assessment: “For the power of Man to make himself what he pleases means, as we have seen, the power of some men to make other men what they please.” Transhumanism comes close to fulfilling Lewis’s warning about the “negation of humanity.” It is a philosophy or ideology that aims to control and transform the human species using bio technologies, in order to eliminate suffering, disease, aging and death.
Psalm 8 is a praise hymn to God the Creator. To esteem nature is to acknowledge the glory of God. To contemplate the heavens not only leads to the praise of an awesome God; it also leads to a sense of the insignificance. However, as with Genesis 1, the creation of humanity is the apex of God’s creative work. God created humanity to be His dominion stewards; to represent Him over all dimensions of His world. God has invested humanity with greatness and with responsibilities.
Next to the family, the church is the most important institution God has created. Jesus only spoke of the “church” (ekklesia) twice—both in future terms: “I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18) and (18:17) in terms of church discipline. The church could not begin until Jesus had died, been resurrected (see Colossians 1:18), ascended to heaven (Ephesians 1:20-23) and then sent the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13). Thus the church began at Pentecost (Acts 1:5, 2:4 and 11:15-16). The New Testament affirms that the church (ekklesia) is literally a body of “called out ones.”
The late Chuck Colson frequently would proclaim, “What was once unthinkable, becomes debatable and then gradually becomes acceptable.” I have always appreciated this declaration as a succinct summary of cultural accommodation. Cultural developments that only a few years ago were unimaginable are now mainstreamed as normal and legitimate in American civilization. Two recent developments illustrate this process of cultural accommodation.
Mary Eberstadt, senior fellow at the Faith and Reason Institute, has challenged us to think about the cause of the cultural disruption we have witnessed in 2020. “The explosive events of 2020 are but the latest eruption along a fault line running through our already unstable lives. That eruption exposes the threefold crisis of filial attachment that has beset the Western world for more than half a century. Deprived of father, Father, and patrium [filial piety], a critical mass of humanity has become socially dysfunctional on a scale not seen before. Six decades of social science have established that the most efficient way to increase dysfunction is to increase fatherlessness. And this the United States has done, for two generations now. Almost one in four children today grows up without a father in the home. For African Americans, it is some 65 percent of children.”
How Americans view their history is important, for that narrative is what is taught in our schools and informs how we view current issues in their historical perspective. Until fairly recently, there was a consensus among most Americans about that narrative. No longer. There are at least two competing narratives that dominate America’s educational curriculums and the various media outlets.
