Rosaria Butterfield, former tenured professor at Syracuse University and former radical lesbian feminist, came to know Jesus Christ through the love and compassion of a pastor and his wife stretching over three years. She describes her conversion as a “train wreck,” for God had to dismantle her entire worldview, replacing it with the worldview detailed in Scripture. Butterfield is now married to a pastor in North Carolina, is a homeschooling mother and continues using her giftedness as a writer and speaker. She recently summarized a question and answer session she was hosting on a college campus in which she detailed her conversion to Jesus Christ.

Human depravity distorts and twists everything, creating chaos and disorder in the culture and its institutions. The first and most important institution God created was marriage and the family (see Genesis 2). What is it current condition? In our democratic-republic, education is intended to be a cooperative and dynamic enterprise involving the public school and parents. What is the condition of the public school movement? The state, an institution created by God to promote justice and thwart evil (see Romans 12:1-10), has taken on the role of a “savior,” ostensibly taking the risk out of living. The family, education, the state—each has been impacted by the depths of human depravity.

The radical ideology of gender and sexual fluidity and of transgenderism in the 21st century has reached an absurd level. Consider a recent ACLU objection to a sales tax on tampons and similar products: “How can we recognize that barriers to menstrual access are a form of sex discrimination without erasing the lived experiences of trans men and non-binary people who menstruate, as well as women who don’t?”

The cultural and ethical confusion over the transgender phenomenon in western civilization is manifested in several ways. For example, this confusion poses potential danger to children 12 and over through the use of puberty blocking drugs. These are children who purportedly are suffering from “gender dysphoria”—the distress caused by feeling that one’s sex at birth and gender identity does not match.

Should Christians accommodate to their culture, to its values, its virtues, its ethical standards? Instinctively, the answer is no. But it is important to understand what the American culture believes and values. What are its standards for authority? Since at least the 1960s, America has accepted two sources of cultural authority

Philosopher and theologian, David Bentley Hart, currently a professor at the University of Notre Dame, is often provocative and controversial. A former Anglican, he converted to Eastern Orthodoxy and writes prominently on major doctrinal issues of Christianity. His most recent book, That All Shall Be Saved: Heaven, Hell and Universal Salvation, argues for universalism—that ultimately God will save everyone, thereby rejecting any belief in a literal hell.

Why do people reject God and embrace an atheistic worldview? Are they convinced that biblical Christianity is irrational, nonsensical? Are the “nones” doubting their faith or questioning their faith because of rational argumentation? Are atheists and/or the now infamous “nones” rejecting Jesus because of their deep-seated, well-thought-through convictions, or are there other explanations?

The scandal of abortion continues to plague American civilization, with the entertainment and political culture setting the parameters. Each cultural sector frames the abortion issue according to its preference, refusing to acknowledge that the discussion is about a human life. The nonsense of the entertainment culture was reflected in the recent Golden Globe awards ceremony. The atrocities that accompany abortion (e.g., marketing baby parts for research) has caused some to engage in civil disobedience.

Most US presidents have had a spiritual “advisor” of some sort. For President Lincoln it was Dr. James D. Smith (when he lived in Springfield) and Rev. Phineas D. Gurley (when he resided in the White House). For President’s Eisenhower and Nixon, it was Billy Graham. President Obama turned to Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in California. In November 2019, Pastor Paula White-Cain joined the Trump administration as an advisor to President Trump’s Faith and Opportunity Initiative, which aims to give religious groups more of a voice in government programs devoted to issues like defending religious liberty and fighting poverty.

In late November 2019, my wife and I saw the movie, “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.” Arguably one of the best movies of 2019, it stars Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers, the host of the popular PBS program Mister Rogers’s Neighborhood, which aired from 1968 through 2001.