Torch, Summer 2002

Summer 2002 / TORCH 9 A premier issue facing the contemporary Christian community is the need to operate “outside the box.” It’s about getting out of our comfort zone in order to have a more effective outreach to our communities, our nation, and our world. One of the surest ways for you to move out of your comfort zone is to evaluate the effectiveness of your own life or the effectiveness of any organization in which you play a role. Ready to give that a try? Here is my fourfold thesis: 1) the 21 st century church’s influence in and over contemporary society, particularly American society, has weakened in comparison to that wielded by godly men and women of the past, 2) the cause of that weakening is easily identifiable, 3) the Bible has much to say about the cause and its remedy, and 4) the process of implementing the solution will be uncomfortable. The 21 st century church’s exertion of influence in society is not affecting the American or wider Western culture to the same degree it enjoyed in the first two centuries of American history. This element of the case seems self-evident enough to accept at face value. But, for the benefit of argument, consider three elements of our society: entertainment (especially television), education, and politics. A cursory look at television offerings should be sufficient. Anyone close to the age of 50 can recall when television offerings were family-friendly. Recall the stature with which authority figures, including police and clergy, were held in society simply because of the vocation they chose to pursue. Attendance at the church of your choice was assumed. Respect for public safety officials was expected, as was respect for clergy. Belief in God, or at the least an assent to the positive influence of religion in society, was nigh unto universal. Compare that to what we find today. Television, along with nearly every form of popular entertainment, is riddled with depictions of immorality, disrespect for authority, and debauched parental images. Clergy are no longer depicted as respectable, but as either pitiful for their lack of material ambition or as ignoble bigots for their stands on issues of morality and protection of human life. Religious belief is most often disdained as either regrettable ignorance or purposeful escape from reality. Religion and religious people, rather than being viewed as a societal good, are dismissed as cultural roadblocks. In public education, every effort is being made to remove any evidence of God, godliness, or a godly heritage. This is not only true in the sciences, but also in history and the social sciences, as well as literature. The recent federal appeals court decision to declare the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional is just the latest example. How far removed from the American tradition is this attitude. Consider that our predecessors placed a strong priority on higher education with the Bible as the cornerstone. For example, in 1642 Harvard adopted guidelines that read, in part, “Let every student be plainly instructed, and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life (John 17:3), and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning. And seeing the Lord only giveth wisdom, let every one seriously set himself by prayer in secret to seek it of him (Proverbs 2:3).” The motto of Harvard was Christi Gloriam (Christ be glorified) and the college was later dedicated Christo et Ecclesiae (for Christ and for the Church). The founders of Harvard believed that “All knowledge without Christ was Proposition #1