For most of human history the decision to have children was a given. Unless there were infertility problems, it was natural and expected that a couple would have children. But with the emergence of birth control options (e.g., pharmaceutical products and devices, as well as abortion) the choice to not have children is a viable one.

In June, the United States withdrew from the United Nations Human Rights Council, which UN Ambassador Nikki Haley described as “a protector of human-rights abusers, and a cesspool of political bias.”  This UN Council is quite frankly a sham.  Aaron Rhodes, author of The Debasement of Human Rights: How Politics Sabotage the Ideal of Freedom,
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The technology of the 21st century has transformed entertainment and leisure-time choices for the typical American. The gaming industry in America has raised significant concerns for modern psychology. Hollywood has taken the 20th century Marvel comic book and transformed it into a lucrative movie brand that is nothing short of astonishing. What does this tell us about American civilization in the early years of the 21st century?

The 21st century’s sexual revolution is not about birth control, sexual promiscuity, or “free love.”  This sexual revolution argues that your identity as a human is tied to your sexuality, and in the spirit of Postmodernism, it is up to you to decide.  Gender and sexual choice are now fluid terms, which necessitate the re-definition
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Suicide is a tragic, heart-wrenching reality in our world today. It is rarely discussed in church and few pastors know how to address it from the pulpit. Colleges and high schools are facing a growing number of students showing signs of “distress” that often lead to suicide.

The confusion among men within American society is at a point of crisis. The rise of feminism and the abusive behavior of Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby and countless other men have fostered the #MeToo Movement. The LGBTQIA movement has raised questions about what it means to be a male. This identity crisis extends to how men view God and Christianity: American men are twice as likely to call themselves atheists. Columnist Ross Douthat observes that “men who are looking for post-Christian enlightenment seem to gravitate toward secular-religious cults like the New Atheism, or more recently toward toxic forms of alt-right politics. In this sense the post-Christian religious landscape is potentially taking Christianity’s gender gap and widening it, playing its own metaphysical role in the growing divergence and polarization of the sexes.”

For much of American history, the fault lines of conflict were religious—Catholic, Protestant and Jewish. The theological differences between these three religious groups defined how each focused on the major cultural issues of the day (e.g. Prohibition of the 1920s, public education and its curricula in the 19th century). Protestantism dominated the culture and rather routinely set the culture’s agenda. America was a Protestant nation and that fact defined almost every cultural issue of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. But in the 20th century, that consensus began to shatter.

I was recently reviewing some old articles I had stored and found, in the 13 November 2006 issue of Time magazine, a debate between Richard Dawkins, an avowed atheist, and Francis Collins, a Christian who converted from atheism. It is an insightful debate, well worth reading. Dawkins is an Emeritus Fellow of New College at Oxford University in England. His 2006 book, The God Delusion, attacks faith philosophically and historically, using the Darwinian hypothesis for its intellectual support. Collins is Director of the National Institutes of Health. At age 27, he converted from atheism to Christianity. His book, The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief, was a bestseller.

It has been said that the one thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history. Sadly, this is often true. We are to learn from history, but tragically rarely do we do that. But, there is something called a philosophy of history and genuine, biblical Christianity has something to contribute here. This is an important issue because we in the Postmodern world are slaves to what is often called “presentism,” which in itself is a philosophy of history. Presentism is an arrogant way to view the past. It assumes that our assumptions, our technological achievements make us superior to every previous generation and age.

The Pew Research Center and the Gallup Organization recently released separate reports concerning the state of religious beliefs in the United States. Both evidence an absence of certainty when it comes to major doctrinal issues, and point to one of the major themes of the Pastoral Epistles (1 and 2 Timothy and Titus), namely that sound doctrine produces godly living. There is a consequence when sound doctrine is not evident in religious belief systems. For example, nine-in-ten Americans believe in a higher power, the Pew Research Center shows, but only a slim majority believes in God as described in the Bible.