American culture in 2022 bears every evidence of a madness that defies reason and common sense. Quite frankly, it manifests an utter foolishness. As Chuck Colson used to declare, what was once unthinkable becomes debatable and gradually becomes acceptable. Such foolishness and madness reflects the downward spiral of evil explained by the Apostle Paul in Romans 1:18-32. Consider these three examples of cultural madness.
We are living in an age awash in cruelty—not only with abuse scandals, but also with political barbarism and the horrific atrocities in Ukraine. But perhaps the most disheartening are the mass shootings we have witnessed these past few months: The vicious, racially motivated slaughter in Buffalo (10 killed and 3 wounded by a white gunman, an adherent to the pernicious racist conspiracy theory) and the unimaginable heartbreak in Uvalde, Texas—19 Robb Elementary children and 2 teachers: “Children having their tomorrows taken away.”
Samuel Goh, lecturer of Old Testament at Brisbane Theological Seminary in Australia, has recently written of the “social reality” of American evangelicalism: A polarization that is paralyzing the evangelical church. Consider some of his observations
In 1988, Mother Teresa and James Lovelock, advocate of the Gaia hypothesis, got into an argument at Oxford University’s Global Forum for Survival. [The doctrine of Gaia, most famously represented in Rosemary Ruether’s book Gaia and God: An Ecofeminist Theology of Earth Healing, argues that male domination of women and male domination of nature are interconnected. She defines “sin” as wrong relationships among human beings and between them and the rest of nature that foster not just economic and political injustice and racism and sexism, but also the destruction of the entire created order. The Gaia hypothesis centers on the thesis that the earth is a living creature. The theory, in fact, imputes a kind of divine power to the Earth.
Historically, America has been known as a nation of committed workers: Phrases such as “rugged individualism,” “pulling oneself up by one’s boot straps,” and the much maligned “Protestant work ethic” are rarely used today. One obvious reason is that America has moved from being an industrial economy to a more service-based economy. Besides, with the COVID pandemic, more people are working from their homes than ever. But the pandemic has also produced what has become known as the “Great Resignation.” Apparently, millions of people have quit working completely.
Having children through surrogacy is increasingly common in the United States, especially the practice of paying women to carry a baby for you. But, other than the United States, only a few countries (e.g., India, Thailand, Ukraine, Mexico) permit paid surrogacy, but even these countries are rethinking the procedure. Thus, there is a significant and growing number of people—generally affluent people—who are coming to the US from Europe, Asia and Australia to have a child via surrogacy. But there are legal and ethical messes that arise in a surrogacy market that is largely unregulated.
Most Americans are anxiously awaiting the Supreme Court’s decision on the Mississippi case (Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization), which will most likely be handed down in late June 2022. The impact this decision will have on abortion in America was the topic of Issues in Perspective for 8 January 2022. This edition of Issues gives focus to a number of presuppositions related to the volatile ethical issue of abortion.
“What are your pronouns?” Such a seemingly innocuous question actually manifests the fanatical nature of radical gender ideology. As evolutionary biologist Colin Wright demonstrates, “pronouns are now frequently displayed prominently in social-media bios, email signatures and conference name tags . . . there are singular ‘they/them’ pronouns used by ‘nonbinary’ people who identify as neither male nor female, as well as a growing list of bespoke ‘neopronouns’ such as ‘ze/zir’ or ‘fae/faer’ and the even stranger ‘nounself’ neoprouns like ‘bun/bunself’ which, according to the New York Times, are identities that can encompass animals and fantasy characters.” Wright goes on to argue that “Proponents of gender ideology have completely decoupled the terms ‘man,’ ‘woman,’ ‘boy,’ and ‘girl’ from biological sex.
As the world moved past the devastation of World War II in the 1950s and 1960s, and as the Cold War ended in 1991, the assumption was that the world, especially Europe, had learned some important lessons of history. But Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine harks back to the 19th century, when big powers crushed small powers at will. Columnist Frank Bruni writes, “What I see on the faces and hear in the voices of so many of the people around me is sheer disbelief about Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and a brutal war in Europe: Aren’t we supposed to be past this? Didn’t history move on?
I became a Christian in 1972 and began a focused, committed walk with Jesus in 1973. As my wife and I surrounded ourselves with Christian friends, we studied the Word of God, sang worship choruses and prayed together. One of the worship songs we sang was “We are One in the Spirit” by Peter Scholtes: “We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord”. . . “We will work with each other” . . . and “We will walk with each other.” The chorus proclaimed, “And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love.” I doubt that anyone would seriously declare that this chorus reflects evangelicalism in 2022. Evangelicalism is a fractured movement at war with itself; a movement often reflects bitterness, recrimination, discord and division—not love.
