A pro-life position involves consistency and an adherence to the value of human life at any stage in its development. Humans are valuable because they bear God’s image, which means both a fetus or a 90-year old are of infinite worth and value to God—and therefore to us. Fighting for pro-life consistency means fighting for children who need love and care, whether in the womb or as an infant. For that reason many evangelical Christians devote their lives to foster care, adoption and “similar services to vulnerable children.

According to a recent study released by the Pew Research Center, the ranks of people who do not adhere to any faith in the US are growing and church attendance has fallen sharply.  The Pew study demonstrates the triumph of personal autonomy and provides further confirmation that we are now living in a Postmodern, Post-Christian
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Most church historians trace the birth of modern evangelicalism to the late 1940s into the early 1950s. Christian leaders such as Billy Graham, Carl Henry and Harold John Okenga, lamenting the separatism and anti-intellectualism of Fundamentalist leaders, organized an institutional separation from Fundamentalism.

In America, indeed in all of Western Civilization, we are experiencing what has been called “The Great Unraveling.” Evangelical author and educator, Duane Litfin, writes: “We live in a time of shifting sand. The avalanche of social, political and legal changes we’ve experienced has left many believers reeling.”

The practice of personal faith is based on one’s knowledge about God, His revelation and His redemptive plan centered in Jesus Christ. But in this Postmodern, Post-Christian era, religion has deteriorated into a matter of experiential, autonomous choice, not revelation. Compared to Western European countries, America remains a highly religious country. But religiosity does not equal sound doctrinal convictions. One of my favorite authors today is sociologist Christian Smith, the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame. Smith has authored a series of books that superbly analyze the culture of American teens and emerging adults (18-30 years of age).

Historian Jon Meacham recently posted a story intentionally seeking to humanize, sanitize and legitimize euthanasia. He writes: “Tuesday [6 August 2019] was to be the day — in the morning, because everything was taken care of. The goodbyes had been said, the tears shed, the coffin handmade. In the spring of 2018, Dick Shannon, a former Silicon Valley engineer with untreatable cancer, took advantage of California’s ‘death with dignity’ law to end his own life once all other medical possibilities had been exhausted.

In Disney’s classic cartoon feature, Bambi, “Thumper” the rabbit offers a wise piece of advice: “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” God’s Word has much to say about the words we use and how hurtful and damaging they can be (see the Proverbs and James 1:19-27; 3:1-12). Most of us forget physical hurts we may have incurred growing up, but we remember vividly the cruel words from a bully or a childhood enemy—or even a merciless parent. Such words are often the root cause of bitterness, which is poisonous and destructive.

This summer we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon (20 July 1969). Those of us who are older can remember what we were doing that day in July fifty years ago. It was a monumental achievement of American technology, drive and perseverance. The Apollo space program harnessed nearly everything that was unique about American civilization to realize one of humanity’s greatest achievements. But it was also wrapped around the realities of the Cold War.

In April 2019, The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention issued its Artificial Intelligence: An Evangelical Statement of Principles. The statement is an important tool, enabling Christians to think about the expanding technology known as artificial intelligence (AI). In the Perspective, I want to summarize this significant statement.

The evidence that American culture is becoming more secular is overwhelming. For example, the rise of the religious “nones” is one of the more profound developments within American culture. They constitute about a quarter of the total population and, about a third of those who became adults in the new millennium, identify with the “nones.” As The Economist reports, “Comparing 2016-2018 with the last three years of the 20th century, declared participants in organized religion have plunged by nearly 20 points to 52%.