World Views

Toad-ally Stupid

 I have had a long time interest in psychedelics, not from the perspective of wanting to experience their effects but  trying to understand why people have a desire to escape reality using them as a means to do so. Lately it has become quite fashionable to smoke a toxin excreted by a species of toad, the Sonoran Desert Toad (Bufo Alvarius) The toxin is a defense mechanism secreted by the toad to ward off predators. Predators who indulge can find themselves succumbing to the toxin and dying. Dosis sola facit venenum, "only the dose makes the poison," is an adage attributed to Paracelsus and is the classic toxicology maxim. Man has found that the dose of the neurotoxin that kills predators does not poison them but offers them a psychedelic experience. The toad's venum is milked  from glands which contains 5-MeO-DMT, the psychoactive ingredient, a paste is made from it, dried and then smoked. Effects occur within 30 seconds and last approximately one hour. The user will be incapacitated, time, vision and sound may be distorted. Some relate the feeling of being connected to a higher power, dying and being re-born to a new awareness. Some people call it the "god molecule" because of these aforementioned effects. The toxin is smoked in a group setting in the presence of a Shaman who collects the fee which is upwards of $250.00 and performs a ritual. Celebrity testimonies endorsing the drug have added to its popularity and abuse. Both Mike Tyson and Hunter Biden, hopping "Mad-Hatters,"  in their own right, have claimed beneficial effects from its use. 

Ancient societies were no strangers to mind altering chemicals. Archaeologists note the presence of opium, hemp and many other substances in Bible-era cultures. Mood-altering substances were also used in connection to ancient religious practice. Greek temples used mind-altering drugs in fortune-telling and oracles. The Apostle Paul's list of the works of the flesh appear in (Galatians 5:19-21), are grouped by similar offenses. He begins by mentioning sexual sin, idolatry and then "sorcery" or pharmakeia. His reference of pharmakeia is closer to idolatry and sexuality in context and hints at the use of drugs in ungodly spiritual practices. Similarly the the Hebrew word kesheph  is translated "charms" in Nahum 3:4 . The same word in Kings 9:22 and Isaiah 47:9 is translated as "sorcery." Combining these contexts suggests biblical "sorcery" is not  akin to Harry Potter's super powers but about abusing drugs for idolatry, recreation and/or oppression of others. The Bible says we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 10:12) not the deadening of our minds with drugs. We are to be sober minded about the devil's schemes (1 Peter 5:8-9) not to be incapacitated and flopping around like a fish out of water. We are to be filled by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18) not baked, wasted or blasted on drugs. Smoking toad venom is idolatry and is not a practice any Christian should have any part of period. We become more like God through sanctification led by the Holy Spirit in a lifelong process, not a sixty minute drug "trip." Smoking toad venom is toad-ally STUPID.

The Silent Pandemic

In 2020, The National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine published a report entitled, "Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults." Two facts that show the significance of the threat to public health as outlined in the study are as follows:

Social isolation significantly increases a person’s risk of mortality from all causes, a risk that may rival the risks of                smoking, obesity, and physical activity (Holt-Lunstad et al., 2017);
Being socially connected in a variety of ways is associated with having a 50 percent greater likelihood of survival, with some indicators of social integration being associated with a 91 percent greater likelihood of survival (Holt-Lunstad et al., 2010)

Loneliness is not a new problem nor is it exclusively a problem of just the elderly, it affects all age demographics and has been particularly been exacerbated by the covid-19 induced isolation as a public health measure. In 2018 the UK acknowledging the problem and appointed a Minister of Loneliness citing a study that documented approximately two million people over the age of 75 across England reported going  weeks without any meaningful social interaction.

Man is gregarious by nature because that is how our Creator made us to be. We are not meant to live apart from meaningful community. The life of faith always takes place within a community, the body of Christ. C.H. Bullock made the following observation about the Psalms, "The Psalmist could not see himself as an individual apart from Israel. His self-identity was bound up in his participation in the community of faith." What is your self identity bound to? Have you even reflected upon it? Do you have a meaningful community? One of the positive outcomes from the covid -19 pandemic was that it forced us as a Church to reflect on the importance of the community of faith and worshiping together as believers We concluded that worshiping in person amongst the community of believers was our priority and we acted with that in mind.  Watching a service on line leaves much to be desired as a realistic long term substitute for worshiping in person. Yet, some churches are considering going online exclusively. That is akin, from my perspective, to going through a drive by viewing at a funeral home.

The American lifestyle has fostered the ideal of the "rugged individualist," neighborhoods have lost their sense of community and are becoming more isolated from their neighbors, soaring divorce rates, broken and scattered families, and the loss of the church as a meaningful part of people's lives, all contribute to the loneliness problem today. Mother Teresa  purportedly said, "The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved." The church has the answer, the Body of Christ, it is the most meaningful answer to loneliness. It is a community where we pray and worship together, grieve and rejoice together and love one another. 

The Worldview Dilemma of American Parents

The Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, headed by George Barna, released  its American Worldview Inventory Report 2022, on March 8th. According to the Barna report, this years initial wave of focus was on the life-defining beliefs and behaviors of parents because of the substantial influence they have on the worldview developed by their children. Before I  delve into the statistics of the report, let's define exactly what we mean by worldview.

A "worldview" is a comprehensive conception of the world from a specific standpoint, it is the harmony of all your beliefs about the world and your way of understanding reality. A worldview deals  with at least the following questions: Where do I come from and why am I here; What is wrong with the world and how can we fix it?                                                                             

Every adult has a world view. That worldview is fully developed and operational before a person becomes a teenager. A Christian worldview answers the above questions from a Biblical perspective. It covers everything from morality to finances and our views about the past and the future. Our lives and everything in it falls under the umbrella of the Bible. John M. Frame defines a Christian worldview as such: "As a Christian , I am committed to a worldview that comes from the Bible: God the Creator, the world as his creation, man made in his image, sin and its consequences as our predicament, Christ's atonement as our salvation, his return as the consummation of all things."

The big takeaway from my perspective, of Barna's study is that 9 out of 10 parents of children under age 13, have a muddled worldview. Less than 1% of the parents embraced any of the alternative worldviews tested for which included, Secular Humanism, Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, Nihilism,  Marxism/ Critical Theory, Postmodernism, and Eastern Mysticism/New Age. Two-thirds of the respondents claimed to be Christians but only 2 % of  the parents of pre-teen childrenal actually  possessed, a Christian worldview. The old adage, "If you don't stand for anything you will fall for everything," seems to be proven true. What we have are, "a full 94% that have a worldview that is a blending of multiple worldviews in which no single life philosophy is dominant, producing a worldview that is diverse and often contradictory," according to Barna. This world view in known as Syncretism, a pot-pourri of ideas that has little thought behind how or why it is strung together into anything meaningful.

I know personally of married couples who have not brought up their children to believe in anything because they didn't want to force their beliefs on them, sadly their children have become today's parents and they are  now raising their children to be rudderless, lost and think nothing of it. These children are tomorrow's future and it doesn't bode well for Christianity. Count on bumpy roads ahead.

You may wonder and ask yourself, "How did this happen to our country?" There are many reasons, it didn't happen overnight and it is beyond the scope of this article to take on. I will tell you this, if you are serious about understanding our society and how we got where we are today, please read Carl Trueman's book, "The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self." Trueman spells it it quite clearly and if you had read his book before Barna's report came out, the statistics would not be a big surprise or a shock to you.

Barna does point out that one might from his statistics predict the end of Christianity in America, but he asserts that, " The reality is that culture-changing movements  can transform a nation with as little as 2% of the population on board."  That being said, I think the number could be far less than the approximately 6.7 million people that make up the two percent with Biblical worldviews. Remember, Christians started with only 12 apostles and spread their faith throughout the known world! We need to pray for revival in our country.