After the Election, What Do We Do Now?

"The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing" - Edmund Burke

The Founding Fathers repeatedly emphasized that without VIRTUE, America cannot survive...

and true virtue comes solely from the Bible. But virtue is not passed on through Christian genes, it is modeled and taught by Christians through the culture. When the Church is silent in the culture, Hell breaks loose. “Politics runs downstream from the culture -- and culture runs downstream from the Church.”

 On Jan. 6, 2021, Rachel Campos-Duffy answered the title question of this article extremely well when asked, “Did Republicans do enough to affect this election, and what did they do wrong?” She said, “I think there are limits to what politics can do. I believe culture is more important, and that elections are lagging indicators of what is happening in the culture. And let's be very clear. We have been under a multi-generational, very patient, very potent indoctrination program by the left and they have captured so many aspects of American life from media, social media. big tech, corporate America, all the way down to our education system.  They have captured not just our universities but our elementary schools.” She closed by saying, in effect, that we need to be more diligent in fighting the culture wars.

But what does it look like to be more diligently involved in the culture wars?

A friend recently forwarded an email from a well-known commentator highlighting several political actions in the news over the last two years which should cause us all to take the culture wars more seriously.

• Sept. 24, 2018, California Governor Jerry Brown signed AB 2119 into law, a bill allowing children to get transgender treatments and services without parental consent, and covered by public taxes.
• Dec. 23, 2020, the Mayor of the District of Columbia Council signed Act #A23-0532, a measure that ends parental rights regarding a minor’s “right” to be vaccinated.
• Dec. 29, 2020, the Massachusetts Senate overrode a gubernatorial veto, passing a law titled “The ROE Act”, lowering the age at which young girls can seek an abortion without the consent of a parent or a judge from 18 to 16.
• Jan. 1, 2021 – Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, unveiled new rules for her chamber which removed gendered terms, such as “father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, uncle, aunt” and replaced them with terms such as “parent, child, sibling, parent’s sibling, etc.” And although the former terms are terms of endearment, love, and personal connection, they have now been deemed “offensive“ and wrong.

My response was somewhat sarcastic, I admit. But I think it’s true. I said, “But none of this is worthy of mention in most churches and Christian conversations, of course. After all, it only involves moral issues in secular society… Not our problem.”

But that IS the problem. We’ve allowed the politically-correct, cancel culture to silence our voices. If any one should be talking about these issues it should be Christians. Scripture is the absolute highest and final authority on truth and morality, and if Christians aren’t part of the debate – adding biblical principles into the mix – who else will be the conscience and bring clarity to the culture? And without clarity, there will be chaos – every man doing what’s right in his own eyes.

Consider how the Church (on the whole) has responded in our recent history:

• 1947 – The Supreme Court decided in Emerson v. the Board of Education that “The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach.” They radically misinterpreted the First Amendment which was established to keep the state out of the church’s business, not vice-versa. Free speech in church was censored – not because of this unconstitutional decision, but because the churches themselves were captured by the deceit of a few judges. “Separation of Church and State” became the accepted belief within the church, though the idea is nonsensical: Government oversees society with laws. Laws are morality in action. The Bible is morality defined. What happens when God’s moral laws are removed from society’s laws? (Hint: we’ve seen the result in 2020). The result was that the church censored herself from - stopped talking about - government because that’s now political.
• 1954 – The Johnson Amendment was slipped into a law passed by the Senate, frightening non-profit organizations with the threat of losing their tax exemption if they endorse or oppose political candidates. And although no church has ever lost its tax-exempt status due to this unconstitutional law, the Church was intimidated by the IRS and censored herself from talking about politics for the first time since the Founding! The subject of politics is now off-limits in most churches.
• 1962 – The Supreme Court found that religious instruction in public schools was unconstitutional (referring to the 1947 decision). The church censored herself from talking about prayer in school because that’s now political.
• Between the ‘70s and ‘80’s sex education programs were implemented as mandatory in America’s schools, and includes the distribution and instruction of the use of condoms. The Church censored herself from talking about sex because now it’s a political issue and we don’t discuss political issues in church.
• 1980 - The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that copies of the Ten Commandments could not be placed in public classrooms because they were in violation of the First Amendment. So, the Church censored herself from talking about public schools because that’s now a political issue.
• 2015 - The U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. The Church censored herself from talking about marriage and sexuality because that’s now political.

Conclusion: We most often only talk about our personal relationship with God (the 1^st Table of the Law) while neglecting our duty to love our neighbor as ourselves (the 2^nd Table of the Law).

Which leads us to today, where everyone from elementary children to congressional representatives are encouraged and enabled to deny and defy their physical gender identity. But we don’t talk about that in Church because it’s political and it seems we don’t want to offend or challenge anyone – ever. This is today’s Gospel. In many of our sanctuaries, it has been reduced to a subjective, non-judgmental,  emotion-driven, sanitized, and “safe” gospel. Above all, one might say it is a “nice gospel for NICE people”, where God is no longer a consuming fire —he’s a warm blanket and cup of hot chocolate.

Is that how Jesus engaged the culture?

No.

Jesus, Paul, John, Peter, James, and Jude all talked about the issues of the day: pointing out hypocrisy in leadership; weak or tweaked doctrine; soul-convicting commands and the necessity of obeying them in the culture. They modeled boldness and courage in speaking the truth in the church and to the world, confronting those in error with love, but with unwavering biblical conviction. The early church prioritized education, creating schools to disciple all believers, believing they had a solemn duty to pass the baton of the full Gospel contained in the entire Bible to the succeeding generations… teaching them to obey all [His] commands in every walk of life. And a large part of obeying is confronting evil with the Truth.

What should we do now?

Start talking with one another about every topic that is dividing us, and do so with an attitude of humility. Check the ideas against Scripture like Bereans and test the Spirits. There is only one truth -- and our God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek His truth.

Practical Steps for Awakening the Church and Saving Our Society

• Make biblical worldview education/discipleship a priority in the church. We need to learn to discern truth from error in the varied hot-topic ideas invading our culture
• Create evangelists of all congregants through the education/discipleship process
• Develop a Church-School branch of ministry within each church
• Establish a Co-op at each church to assist parents with Homeschooling, full or part time
• Open the church building for use by the co-ops for free or for minimal cost. After all, it is their tithes which keep the lights on.
• Develop a tutor resource center enlisting men and women within the church and community to volunteer or be paid part-time to serve the church – especially those who can only afford to keep their kids in public school.
• Create a Resource Center/Library at the church
• Organize weekend or weeknight seminars and lectures by experienced Christian educators and topical specialists. Open such events to neighbor churches.
• Create men’s, women’s, teen’s, and parent’s worldview studies, teaching one worldview topic at a time. Make these regularly available as part of Sunday School or Small Group fellowships

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If you have any thoughts or ideas to add to this list, we welcome your comments!