When it comes to ethical decision-making in America right now, our leaders give every evidence of having their feet firmly anchored in mid-air! The result is confusion, dysfunction and an abandonment of the clear, ethical guidelines provided for us in Scripture. Permit me a few examples of this ethical confusion.
In late June, the Congressional Budget Office projected that the federal debt will equal 122% of the United States’ annual economic output by 2034, far surpassing the high set in the aftermath of World War II. The deficit will swell to $1.9 trillion this fiscal year and keep growing until the overall national debt hits $50.7 trillion a decade from now. The CBO revised its forecast from four months ago, when it projected that the debt would reach $48.3 trillion in 2034, and 116 percent of economic output. The new figures add to the urgency facing policymakers in 2025. Next year, vast portions of the tax code are set to expire, potentially forcing a steep tax hike on individuals and families. Congress suspended the debt limit in 2023, but that, too, will expire next year, setting up a showdown between the two parties over federal spending.
Because God is the Creator, He owns everything (see Psalm 50:10-12). And, as the Sovereign Creator and Owner, He gives us all things that are a part of life, trusts us with them and expects us to manage all things well. He is the owner; we are His stewards. A biblical view of stewardship, therefore, centers on utilizing and managing all the resources God provides for His glory and the betterment of His creation; it is managing everything He brings into our lives in a manner that honors Him.
Brad East, associate professor of theology at Abilene Christian University, makes this astute observation: “Something has happened in the last 25 years in American evangelicalism—what I believe to be a massive generational shift . . . I have in mind low-church Protestant traditions in the United States: churches centered on the Bible, evangelism, and personal faith in Jesus; often but not necessarily nondenominational, with moderate to minimal emphasis on sacraments, liturgy, and ecclesiastical authority; and marked by a revivalist style as well as conservative beliefs about sex, marriage, and other social issues.
A new medical phrase has entered our vocabulary—“transgender medicine.” It refers to medical treatments for children who identify as transgender. The treatments at issue include puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgery, although this is relatively rare. The Economist summarizes these treatments: “Puberty blockers are drugs that delay the onset of puberty. Cross-sex hormones stimulate the development of opposite-sex characteristics: estrogen causes males to grow larger breasts, testosterone gives females bigger muscles and deeper voices, among other things.”
Concern, even anxiety, about the upcoming generation is a given in American history. For example, in 1935, George Leighton and Richard Hellman in Harper’s lamented the apathy, disenchantment and criminality of high school students in America. In 1982, Neil Postman published The Disappearance of Childhood in which he argued that teens were adopting adult vices (e.g., heavy drinking, crime and sexual immorality). He blamed television. In that same spirit of concern and anxiety, a new book by Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing An Epidemic of Mental Illness, gives focus to smartphones and social media.
A regular columnist in The Economist magazine writes under the label “Lexington” and recently published an article summarizing a 1988 six month visit by a Chinese political scientist, Wang Huning, to America and his subsequent book, America Against America. [Wang is now Chief of Ideology and Propaganda in China.] Wang was mesmerized by the voluntary pursuit of financial wherewithal, rather than any ideology or political system of coercion in America. For him, this was a source of stability. He was astonished at public libraries, where people could access the knowledge of generations past.
In 2023, Jean M Twenge, Psychology professor at San Diego University, published an important book entitled Generation: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silent—And What They Mean For America’s Future. She offers profiles of the living generations in the midst of a century of social change
In 1978, the historian Christopher Lasch published a profoundly important book, entitled The Culture of Narcissism, in which he argued that this culture “assumes that psychic health and personal liberation are synonymous with an absence of inner restraints, inhibitions, and ‘hangups.’” And what could offer more liberation than throwing off the constraints of one of humanity’s oldest institutions, monogamous marriage? Polyamory is the most recent manifestation of this narcissistic penchant.
One of my favorite Christian authors is Gene Edward Veith, Provost and Professor of literature at Patrick Henry College. Cleverly, Veith has put together a Catechism written by advocates of our secular culture. He follows the typical catechism questions found in many Reformation documents.
