What are the battles that are being fought now in America’s culture war?
∙ Abortion
∙ Homosexual marriage
∙ Contraceptive mandate
∙ Health insurance mandate
∙ The Integrity of public officials
∙ The nature of freedom
∙ The optimum means for handling the social safety net
∙ The nature of sexual morality
∙ Religious expressions in the public square
It is not that these topics are new. In fact, all of them have been front and center for some time now. But there is no question that the intensity of the discussion has reached a level that I have not seen in my lifetime. In my view, there are two reasons this is so.
First, the number of people advocating for the issues above are more numerous and, thus, more vocal. We see this not only on the individual level, but there are advocacy organizations for each of them which spend literally millions of dollars to promote their point of view.
The second reason the volume of the discussion has risen is that we now have political leadership in the highest levels of government who promote these agendas in ways that are contrary to the Christian viewpoint. These government officials not only promote them verbally, but have the political influence to create policy which supports their views. It is very true that the ones in leadership create momentum and openings for whatever values they support.
The result is a sea change in the national worldview foundation. On a belief level, we literally are not the same nation we used to be.
As Christians, we might as well get used to the fact that we are swimming in a different ocean. And while there is still a certain amount of push-back that we can do politically, it is unlikely that we will ever get back to “the way it used to be.” For Christians, this is going to be very uncomfortable in many ways.
That being said, it actually gives us even greater opportunities to share our faith in Jesus Christ. The fact that these anti-Christian positions are so prominent is evidence that the number of non-believers is more prominent – thus giving us greater access to people who need to know Christ.
But the simple fact that the need exists does not get us anywhere. Christians are going to have to step up to the plate in a way that we have not seen in recent times. Ultimately this culture war is spiritual, not political. And the only way to fight it is to become more knowledgeable about how to share our faith and more committed to actually doing it. Sitting back and letting someone else do it is no longer an option.