Where am I? What's happening here? The questions are always rising. Until two years ago I had no ontic referent. But more so I didn't care about any ontic referent. It's difficult, when your world gets turned upside down. But some things do now finally make sense. And I do have an ontic referent, an objective reference point by which to gauge the world around me.
I was so blind before. Truly, truly. I can't say I see very well yet though either. This is revolutionary. It's truly a revolution happening inside my head. The old lies are being cast out. But it's a long journey.
It's exhausting too. I feel like I could rest for about a thousand years. But that will have to wait until later. Culture shock, for sure. It's nothing new. I've always been driving through different worlds, different scenes, different locales, a vagabond, a wanderer, a rebel without a cause.
I worked as a journalist. I wrote as a novelist. I won awards for poetry, journalism, and essay writing. Those things were a powerful expression of my own inner thoughts. They were very important to me. But they didn't explain the world.
It wasn't until I read the Bible that I began to see. The Bible adequately explains the world around me. It leaves a lot of questions unanswered, but today I'm ok with that.
The world is a difficult place to live in. We all know that, or we should. The data does not support the idea that things are consistently getting better. The data shows just the opposite. But we tend to see what we like to see. So does the world around it.
To be a Christian in this world, at this time in history, during this age of unprecedented luxury is to face a world full of lies and half truths. Can you see through the illusion? I could write for untold pages on the illusions and half truths in this society. And I could point to so many things we probably don't notice, that detract from our worship of God, Jesus Christ. There are many things we don't notice, because we've been raised in the cultural context so effectively that we are blind to it.
As a political journalist at the University of Wisconsin I had to analyze issues from multiple angles to find the truth of a given situation. Perhaps God armed me with that to use today in analyzing the United States culture and social practices against the moral teaching of the Bible.
In this essay I'd like to look at the overall mindset and vague values and thoughts that seem to pervade our society. For a more direct approach that takes on clear examples of idolatry and false beliefs within the USA cultural context please view this essay: Recipes for the Babylonian Captivity: Guarding Against Temptation in a Consumer Society.
Let's see if I can nail the national, typical mood mindset in the air. Let's see here.. Life is about pursuing a career, having a family, and preparing for retirement. College is expensively important. Credit score is vital, debt is good but not too much. Buy a house, have kids, don't hurt anyone but yourself. Shop until you drop, capitalism is fun. Work 40 hours a week, the job is the most important thing. Money, money, and more money. Sex within the first year of the relationship is no big deal. I'm not religious, I'm spiritual. Church is for hypocrites. Science explains everything. Evolution is a fact. Only dumb, simple people believe in a personal God. Gay marriage is good plus lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual, metrosexual, no problems there we need to endorse these things and stand up for our rights. Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, and Miley Cyrus aren't evil or wrong, they are just expressing themselves and should keep doing so. The media does not raise our children, kids remain entirely unaffected by the sex, drugs, and booze culture on the screens. Violence on television, movies, and in music is harmless, people who think otherwise are backwards old weirdos. Democrats vs. Republicans always and forever, no one is really in charge or on the same team everyone just fights over which way is better. Tolerance of everything. Cognitive behavioral therapy and psychology of me and getting what I want. All roads lead to heaven. Who is to say what is right or wrong? There is truth in everything. Every man with his own idea of truth. All religions are basically the same and all people are basically good, aside from the terrorists and the people in the other political party. The mainstream media is right, I need to hear about all the latest celebrity gossip and new everything. Just wars are good things, keep spending, spending, spending. All life is relative, so nothing matters anyway.
Yeah, that seems to be about it. How much of all that is true? As a Christian critical thinker I find none of it to be true. Not one of those statements. Yet most would believe at least some of those statements to be true. That's the mood we're in, in the west right now. I could go back and look at why or how these views have come together, but I don't want to go in that direction today. The point is those views are not working. They are not the views of a moral society capable of sustaining itself. They are lies perpetuated from many sources intent on pursuing their own beliefs at the expense of reality.
I don't follow Christ because I like how it makes me feel. I don't follow Christ because it was how I was raised. I don't follow Christ and believe the things I do as a crutch or because it's hipster or trendy. I follow Jesus Christ as Lord because based on the evidence from all areas and disciplines I study, as well my personal experience with Jesus Christ, Christianity is the most plausible answer. I follow Jesus Christ because unlike many things I used to tell myself, Jesus Christ is actually real and Christianity is actually true. If something else appeared to be more true, I would follow that. What matters is the truth, and not ordering what I want from a numbered drive through menu display like McDonalds, but what is actually the truth!
Today I don't drive up to the world's religions and say yes I'd like a number 4 Buddhism with a side of Hindi, and two extra servings of New Age and a little bit of Islam sprinkled on top. And a number 11 Prosperity gospel from the desert menu. No, I must be humble and say yes some of those beliefs are tempting and appealing, but what is actually true and real? What adheres to reality?
C.S. Lewis was a fan of allegory. He compared Christianity to a sort of holy resistance movement. He compared it somewhat to the Nazi occupation of France during World War II. Christians are kind of like the Maquis, the french resistance. A resistance fighter approaches you at a table and asks you to join the resistance. It will be very difficult and most will be against you. In fact it might sometimes appear like the one in front of you is working for the enemy, but you need to trust that there are grand schemes taking place and ruses are being set about to allow for acts of sabotage against the enemy. C.S. Lewis wrote that before he was a Christian he was a rebel. In effect when he surrendered to God he had to admit that God was, in fact, God, and he wasn't. He was a rebel in the field, and he had to peaceably lay down his weapons. As a result he called himself a resistance fighter ordained to acts of holy sabotage against the kingdom of the enemy.
In modern times one could compare being a Christian to living in the zombie apocalypse. Ever feel like you're living among the walking dead? Even before I was a Christian I felt that way. Maybe even more so then. Maybe there are some hints of truth in all those zombies movies, shows like The Walking Dead. Maybe that's what it's like on Earth. Most are walking dead, destined for disconnection from God, believing whatever everyone else is believing. And then there's us, the Christian survivors. Armed to the teeth by God, but overwhelmed and outnumbered. Sometimes Christians fall away, and get turned into zombies by all the temptations around them. Kind of like in the movies and series when a survivor gets bit by a zombie, he dies and then comes back as a zombie. Maybe zombies are like non-believers, trying to get us to join them in sin. And we're like the groups of survivors, tattered and struggling against the horrors of the sinful world, hoping and dreaming of some island or safe zone, some green paradise where no more zombies will appear in the shadows to attack us and steal our life.
We are suppose to be decidedly different from the world around as followers of the risen Lord Jesus Christ. The idea of a "god" or "God" of any sort is becoming more and more alien to our country. That is not because the evidence is leading elsewhere, it is because the interpretation of the evidence is being pushed in a different direction based on an agenda to evade the possibility of an intelligent designer. In fact the scientific evidence tends to more and more so point to a finely tuned universe, finite in nature with an absolute starting point.
Our society tends to see scientists the way they used to see priests. Anything a scientist says is true, because science says so. In addition, scientists are very objective while religious types are very rigid and dogmatic. Both of those statements are false. As Frank Turek puts it, "Science doesn't say anything, scientists do." There is only scientific data, and then it must be interpreted within possibly cumulative theories. While some religious types have been known for dogmatic views, more and more so it seems scientists and atheists seem to be working from an intense set of dogma's within doctrines that cannot be questioned. If a scientist ever thinks to question the theory of evolution, they are often rejected from popular circles of the sciences.
Similar things have happened in Christian history, when certain groups would adhere to a doctrine regarding the interpretation of scripture and dissenters pointed out flaws in the interpretation, one group would label the other "false teachers" or even "heretics." Some of the same even goes on today. The point is, whether it's theological debates, political debates, or scientific debates, the same sort of corruption takes place. Scientists are not necessarily non-dogmatic pure truth seekers who are entirely unbiased. In fact many of the most noted scientists in history have been Christians. And many of the scientists behind developments in the last two hundred years of science have been atheist or agnostic reactionaries attempting to push in a direction away from an intelligent creator. It's just a fact.
My point here is we need to study and be well read people. We can't just trust scientists to give us the truth, or the mainstream media to give us the truth, or our governments to give us the truth. I've begun studying many of these topics in science, history, statistics, and apologetics. It's amazing the truth that comes out just beneath the generalizations of the culture.
Turns out that when you get right to the heart of meaning, within the pages of the Bible, Jesus Christ, and what life is really about, that whole block of generalizations and beliefs within our culture turns out to be entirely false, and turned upside down on it's head.
Originally we had looked at it and had concluded the mood was this: Life is about pursuing a career, having a family, and preparing for retirement. College is expensively important. Credit score is vital, debt is good but not too much. Buy a house, have kids, don't hurt anyone but yourself. Shop until you drop, capitalism is fun. Work 40 hours a week, the job is the most important thing. Money, money, and more money. Sex within the first year of the relationship is no big deal. I'm not religious, I'm spiritual. Church is for hypocrites. Science explains everything. Evolution is a fact. Only dumb, simple people believe in a personal God. Gay marriage is good plus lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual, metrosexual, no problems there we need to endorse these things and stand up for our rights. Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, and Miley Cyrus aren't evil or wrong, they are just expressing themselves and should keep doing so. The media does not raise our children, kids remain entirely unaffected by the sex, drugs, and booze culture on the screens. Violence on television, movies, and in music is harmless, people who think otherwise are backwards old weirdos. Democrats vs. Republicans always and forever, no one is really in charge or on the same team everyone just fights over which way is better. Tolerance of everything. Cognitive behavioral therapy and psychology of me and getting what I want. All roads lead to heaven. Who is to say what is right or wrong? There is truth in everything. Every man with his own idea of truth. All religions are basically the same and all people are basically good, aside from the terrorists and the people in the other political party. The mainstream media is right, I need to hear about all the latest celebrity gossip and new everything. Just wars are good things, keep spending, spending, spending. All life is relative, so nothing matters anyway.
Let's see what the truth looks like for the Christian follower of Jesus Christ, and believer in the teachings of the Bible:
Life is about pursuing God, reliance on Jesus Christ for salvation, loving and caring for your family, and loving your neighbor as yourself. College may be important, and it may not be important for the believer. Credit score is meaningless, and debt is unwise for a believer. Serve the Lord with your house, care for your family and support them, try not to hurt anyone, but more so, serve others and show mercy to those in pain or lost. Think about others more, me less. Love. One cannot serve two masters, money is a means to an end, and Jesus Christ is the one who is served. Capitalism is the reality, so working is important. But spending should be limited and family time should be a priority. Pre-marital sex is wrong, and I refuse to practice it. It's not about religion, it's about a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Church is for lost sinners, and healing believers. Science is useful, but cannot explain reality. Evolution is a theory. Turns out some of the most well educated people in history have been Christians. Gay marriage is wrong, and any sexual orientation outside the revelation of the Bible is sinful and wrong. Depravity in media has a strong effect on children, and celebrities so deeply involved in such sin could possibly be under the influence of evil spirits. Democrats have an agenda, Republicans have an agenda and many politicians serve only special interests, banks, and big business. Tolerance is important, but it goes both ways. There is only one way to heaven, his name is Jesus Christ (Acts 2:38). Truth is not relative, truth is objective. We can tell what is right and what is wrong because we have a conscience, a gift from God, and we also have a Bible full of teaching on right and wrong. All religions are fundamentally different and at best superficially similar. Life is not a random occurrence of time plus matter plus chance. In fact, the possibility of the human enzyme coming about by chance is 1 in 10 to the 40,000th power. At such odds, life coming about by chance is statistically impossible. Therefore all life is created, and if created then there must be a creator, who is God, therefore, life is a gift from God.
The imperative of every Christian is to follow Jesus Christ, relying on his work on the cross for the forgiveness of all sins and a beautiful road to heaven, progressively through life. The Christian submits humbly to the care of others and even more so endeavors to love God the creator with everything they have and everything they are. The Christian serves God and serves others, and lives by example a humble life of service and self sacrifice for the good of others and the good of the society around them. The Christian shares his or her faith with kindness, respect, and most of all love. The Christian adheres to the teachings of the Bible, and over life falls more and more in love with God, finally at death meeting his or her creator face to face, in a remade world where humanity will live in peace with God forever.
Amen.
Related Posts:
The Mainstream Media, Tolerance in American culture
American Traditionalism vs. Actual Biblical Christianity
Religion or Relationship? Good deeds or Jesus Christ?
Using our Unique Talents to Impact Culture
Objective Truth on a Spiritual Battlefield
