Withering, Slithering or Dithering

From My Perspective - - -

Major shifts in politics and religion are occurring throughout the world. It should come as no surprise that a major contributor to both is secularism. Question: Has our nation and world become secular while the Church occupied itself with lesser matters than the Gospel and how it can and must impact the world? A basic and working definition for secularism is: “a spirit or tendency, especially a system of political or social philosophy that rejects all forms of religious faith, practice and worship.” It holds to a “view that public education or other matters of civil policy should be conducted without the introduction of a religious element.” Have we arrived at this point?

A British Column – The Independent with Robert Fisk – makes the following assessment of where the United States is in terms of the crucial Middle East. The Headline is: “Who cares in the Middle East what Obama says?” We should be both clear and fair at this juncture. President Obama is the face of the United States in foreign affairs and becomes the subject for the United States and what people in the world think of this nation. A few of the editorial thoughts are: “This month, in the Middle East, has seen the unmaking…of the United States. More than that, it has witnessed the lowest prestige of America in the region since Roosevelt met King Abdul Aziz on the USS Quincy in the Great Bitter Lake in 1945. While Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu played out their farce in Washington…the Arabs got on with the serious business of changing their world, demonstrating and fighting and dying for freedoms they have never possessed. Obama waffled on about change in the Middle East – and about America's new role in the region. It was pathetic. What is this role thing? an Egyptian friend asked me at the weekend. Do they still believe we care about what they think?"

Meanwhile, in this country, the area of religion is being reviewed as it rehashes what it believes. World Magazine for June 4, 2011 has this editorial: Withering away?  By Timothy Dalrymple. The article asserts: “Researchers rush to predict the demise of organized religion in the West - Celebrated intellectuals have long predicted the demise of religion in modern scientific society, and a new, headline-grabbing study presented at a Dallas meeting of the American Physical Society claims to demonstrate mathematically that organized religion will be "driven toward extinction" in at least nine Western-style democracies.  One of the study's authors…had developed a mathematical model to account for the extinction of languages spoken by small numbers of people. Another of the authors…noted that similar data was available for religious affiliation in some developed nations, and suggested they apply the same model to the waning of religious affiliation. Of the nations studied, only the Czech Republic already has a majority of its citizens who are unaffiliated with a religion, at 60 percent.” The implication is in terms of how far does the United States lag behind achieving the same type of majority!

What can be done for religion in our nation? Can it get back on track and represent the message and purpose declared by Jesus Christ. When Paul preached at Ephesus, he took issue with the costly idols (ornate gods) that were being sold. Note what occurred when Paul spoke an uncompromised message in that day – Acts 19:29-32 – “So the whole city was filled with confusion, and rushed into the theater with one accord, having seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians, Paul's travel companions…Some therefore cried one thing and some another, for the assembly was confused, and most of them did not know why they had come together.” Their motive was to preserve their profitable business venture – but this Paul – was taking a firm and non-compromised stand in terms of the truth and the right way. The question before the confused multitudes was simple: Do we accommodate the sellers of ornate gods which is profitable for all of us, or do we listen to the rabble-rouser Paul with his deliberate and decisive message about Jesus Christ and the Gospel. It seems as though a decisive day is coming soon for this nation and it may be marked by many unpleasant times that may include persecution and martyrdom. What will you do in such a day? With whom – for Whom will you stand?  Consider these things with me!