World Views

Why America's Record Godlessness Is Good News for the Nation. (A rebuttal)

Above Photo from R.E.M's Music Video "Losing My Religion" 1991.

"Why America's Godlessness is Good News for the Nation " was the title of an Op-Ed run in the Los Angeles Times on April 2nd. authored by Phil Zuckerman an Associate Dean of Pitzer College and the author of "Society Without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment."  

According to the most recent Gallup Poll released earlier this month, for the first time since Gallup began tracking numbers in 1937, more people in America are not members of a church, synagogue or mosque than are. In 1945, 75% of all Americans were members compared to today's 47%. Zuckerman continued to site all the troubling statistics that document the decline of Christianity in America. These are facts that cannot be disputed.

What I do dispute is the conclusions that he draws anecdotally at best, from history and present day to make his case.  He contends our collective fears, that moral decline and societal destruction is directly proportional to increased secularism, is incorrect.  Based on our historical observation, that forced secularization, led to the mass atrocities, crimes, and moral outrages committed in the 19th. century by  Nazi's and Communist totalitarian regimes. He states that what we have going on now is different.  We are in the midst of a natural organic decline towards secularization brought about by  better education, more prosperity, and living safer, secure and peaceful lives and will not lead to societal ruination.  In other words he is implying that as society becomes more educated and prosperous people begin to realize that religion is truly the opiate of the people that Karl Marx said it was.

"Enlightened"  people are more likely to revere the Scientific Method, receive vaccines, and support: sex education, reproductive rights, gay rights, death with dignity, gun safety legislation and drug abuse. He maintains that the more secular democracies, Japan, the U.K., Scandinavia, Australia and Canada, are willingly more progressive and don't have that religious drag preventing a universal  acceptance of the aforementioned liberal agendas and they are better off for it. What he implies is that people of faith are ignorant and are unable to go along with this natural  occurring societal evolution, that  will inevitably lead you to the realization that there is no God and we will be better off as a society embracing the inevitable.

I might remind Mr. Zuckerman, Francis Bacon a Christian, was credited with giving us the Scientific Method! There are thousands of Christian scientists that have contributed greatly to our knowledge of  the pure sciences and medicine in the past and continue to do so today. Science and faith are not mutually exclusive, that is Enlightenment philosophy. The Enlightenment brought us the French Revolution, guillotines, Marxism and the totalitarianism of the 19th. century. History is full of examples of the moral decline of empires and their inevitable ruin, read a world history book Mr. Zuckerman. 

Yes, people of faith do have problems with assisted suicide, abortion, homosexuality, same sex marriage and legalization of drugs. You see, we believe in a transcendent truth that comes from outside of us. It is bigger than we are. Otherwise, truth is what you say it is- what is true for me may not be true for you and therefore, there is no truth at all. If everything is relative how can you have a moral society?  You cannot. God has revealed His truth to us in written word, the Bible. You might put that on your must read bucket list, Mr. Zuckerman.  

What you describe as natural organic decline is just as evil as the horrors of the 19th. century and you are blind to it.  Our holocaust in the U.S. is the 62 million babies slaughtered in abortuaries since 1973, the sexual revolution has normalized promiscuity, the definition of marriage has been changed and the nuclear family is under attack. You talk about scientific truth yet you deny the basic biological fact of being born either male or female. You say we would be better off as a nation of atheist's, embracing immorality and denying God? Who is ignorant of the facts Mr. Zuckerman? 

I'll leave you with a quote from John Adams: "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."  You see Mr. Zuckerman someone way smarter than you realized that if we lose our religion, we lose our morality, and we will lose our country.  How is that good news for America?

Link to Op-Ed

Methodist Church Under Siege

The largest United Methodist church in the  Atlanta metro area, Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church, finds itself under siege by its own liberal Bishop, Sue Haupert-Johnson and her minions. The latest attack by the bishop was to reassign the conservative and orthodox pastor, The Reverend Jodi Ray, to a newly "created "position within the North Georgia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. This was a thinly veiled attempt to replace the pastor with someone more aligned with the LGBTQ+ issues within the denomination. Officially the U.M.C. still maintains the traditional Biblical teachings on marriage, gender and sexuality, propped up by the African Church and a network of American pastors and laity within the church, but is largely ignored by the American bishops. Gay weddings are performed and gay pastors are ordained and foisted upon congregations. Not so much at Mt. Bethel U.M.C.,their pastor has refused  the reassignment and is backed up by his congregation. The Church  has begun a disaffiliation process with the denomination and Pastor Ray has surrendered his credentials as an ordained elder in the U.M.C.

In 2016 the General Conference, the U.M.C.'s global decision making body, voted to hold a special session to decide LGBTQ+ inclusion in the denomination , which has come up at every General Conference for the last 30+ years. The session strengthened the denomination's existing bans on ordination and marriage of LGBTQ+ United Methodists. Push back came from a faction that proposed a split of the denomination called, "A Proposal of Reconciliation and Grace Through Separation."  The final vote on this plan is not scheduled until August-September of 2022. The plan will basically split the denomination  between liberals and the traditional Bible believing congregations. Everyone keeps their Church properties and goes on their separate ways. I would hope this works out as outlined, but the skeptic in me says probably not. The liberal left never gives up this easily and there is sure to be a battle royale over assets of the U.M.C. to come. The Wesley brothers will be spinning in their graves if they haven't begun to do so already. We should keep Mt. Bethel Church in our prayers as well as our Methodist brothers and sisters in Christ who stand firm for the Truth.

Slavery And Illegal Immigration

Slavery has been around as long as man has been at war with each other. The vanquished were often taken by the victors and enslaved. The early history of the Americas involved enslavement of indigenous peoples, indentured servants, as well as the development of an organized slave trade that fueled the economic engines of labor intensive, highly profitable  sugar cane, tobacco and cotton industries, all of which had huge markets in Europe. The use of slavery, simply put, maximized profits and provided an inexhaustible supply of unskilled labor. Slavery today is not much different than it was in the past. Islamic countries still practice slavery overtly while other countries are more covertly involved, supplying illicit human trafficking for the sex trade. No longer do we see the slave ships of the past delivering slaves to our shores, we see illegal immigrants making their way north in caravans through a pipeline controlled by drug cartels. Minor unaccompanied children, families and working age adults are recruited by the cartels and organized into caravans for the trip north.  That's where the victimization begins. People who cannot afford the fee are held in economic bondage to the cartel's under the threat of death to themselves, their family and those left behind in their home countries. Even if they do pay up they are continuously extorted afterwards. Minors are raped and abused by predators along the way. The cartels force some into the sex trade and young males are recruited and used for drug smuggling. The carrot on the stick to get these people to make this treacherous journey are the promise of jobs and a better life in America. Poor and inconsistent enforcement of our immigration policies and lack there of  encourages these practices.  No longer do we have control of our southern border, the cartels do. 

Once folks make it through the gauntlet and enter into America they are victimized again by unscrupulous  American employers who take advantage of their illegal status and pay them less than market determined wages in order to maximize their profits and undercut competition.  A 2014 Pew Research Center report identified the industries that used the highest percentages of illegal immigrants.  Agriculture, Construction, Leisure/Hospitality, Private Households  and Landscaping are the heaviest users of illegal immigrant labor.  Politicians look the other way when powerful constituents make use of this shadow labor force to fill their coffers. One political party seeks to use them as a way to stay in power in perpetuity, not caring about the negative impact they have on our hospitals , school systems and  the Federal Government's social entitlement spending. They don't care about the plight of these people they are just a means to their political ends.

Illegal immigration in this country is foremost a moral issue. The systematic exploitation of the poor, defenceless and uneducated, in order to enrich ourselves, keep prices low and politicians elected is an abomination and every bit as evil as the slavery that was in our country for over 200 years.  A bloody civil war was fought to end it. It looks like we haven't learned much from the past and will be doomed to repeat it and suffer the consequences. Once again it is up to Christians to raise awareness and end this national sin.