When talking about what to look for in a dating partner and/or potential spouse, I've suggested one should look for someone who is loving, trustworthy, and is aware of one's own faults. The first two traits have nothing to do with the article being reviewed tonight, but the last trait does. That is because if we get involved with someone who is not aware of their own faults, eventually they will project onto us their own faults. This is what might be occurring in the article being reviewed here.
Albert Mohler (click here for a bio) wrote an article, I am not sure of its date, that was posted on the Ligonier Ministry website. The article was about the growth of secularism in America (click here for the article). In that article, Mohler compares the growth of secularism in America with the same in Europe. Mohler stated that there is a difference in the growth of the two except in American universities. There, Mohler claims, that growth secularism in our universities is comparable with that in Europe.
Mohler cites Peter Berger in laying the blame for the secularization in America at the feet of intellectual elites and their influence on and through universities. He first cites Berger as saying that the rate of secularization of America was comparable with the secularization of Europe; it just took another form. Berger, according to Mohler, states that it is the loss of religion's authority that led to the current secularization of America. . Berger continued with a prediction that this secularization along with the loss of religious authority would result in a capitulation of believers in God with the 'secular agenda.'
Mohler then cites Charles Taylor in stating that, because of modernity, religion has now become more of an option in the West. And with that, belief has become 'an exercise in personal autonomy.' That is belief in the God who has all authority is said to be comparable with any other belief people might have.
Taylor traces the transition of the place of religion in America to 3 stages: the pre-Elightenment years where unbelief was impossible through to the 'late-modern era' where faith becomes impossible. What enabled that transition was the Enlightenment with its multiple ways of looking at the world. According to Taylor, it is the mere belief in a deity that has been lost, but the belief in a personal God who speaks with and exercises authority.
According to Mohler, all of this has caused Christians to become 'intellectual outlaws.' And what is involved in this secularization is not just an intellectual revolution, but a moral one too.
Considering that we have part of the 1st Amendment in The Constitution dealing with the freedom of religion, the only rational response must quote the title of the Miles David piece of music titled 'So What.' Mohler is simply singing the Things Ain't What They Use To Be blues. Things have changed since the time when Christianity was more influential than it is today. But Mohler and his quotations from Berger and Taylor have not told a complete enough story of why things have changed with respect to religion's authority, the Christian religion to be specific, in society.
Here we might consider the history of Christianity's influence in America. That influence once included its support for multiple expressions of white supremacy against multiple races, America's capitalist economic system which includes a growing wealth disparity between the white race and some other races, America's patriotic zeal for imperialism and militarism. We might even include our slow response to climate science. In other words, being either unwilling or unable to admit our faults has caused us to scapegoat others, such as intellectual elites, for our failures. If we go by the Biblical verse that tells us that we will know God's followers by their fruits, what does American Church History say about what should be Christianity's moral authority?
However, we need to return to the first reaction to Mohler's article expressed by this blog article: So What. Again, we have the 1st Amendment and we are suppose to be living in a democracy. Why is there such concern with the increased secularization of America and the loss of influence by Christianity? What does the freedom of worship/religion mean to Mohler and anyone who shares his views here? Does belief in the God of the Bible imply that we should want Christianity to have a dominant place of influence in our democratic society? Is working for such a position for Christianity in society even Biblical? And what about the prevalence of injustice that occurs throughout American Church history? These are the unanswered questions in Mohler's article. And they are also the questions we should ask ourselves first before considering the importance of Mohler's article.
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