The Church’s Failed Influence Of Maintaining American Culture

Christian freedom is fading in America, and soon the faith itself will be shoved underground by an oppressive government where only the doctrines of the state are allowed to be preached.

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” – John Adams

” Where there is no religion, there is no morality…With the loss of religion…the ultimate foundation of confidence is blown up; and of life, liberty and property are buried in ruins” – Timothy Dwight

I’ve been crying aloud the warning for years that the church in America was losing it’s salt and influence in maintaining our culture.  Sadly, when speaking about this topic at myriad churches and public rallies and events – the vast majority of Christians are disinterested.  In counties where the Ten Commandments were threatened to be removed, asking pastors of hundreds of churches to come and lead the community in prayer were met with silence and indifference.  Some did not want to “rock the boat” by appearing to be ‘political’.   In one county alone, after contacting over 100 Christian churches – only 1 pastor came.  That should have been my wake up call that the Christian church in America was fading into irrelevance.  For if those that pay their Savior lip service each week would not stand on the bedrock of His Word as the foundation of our civil society – why should I expect the church to stand against state-imposed homosexual marriage and homosexual doctrine being forced upon society?

As it is – the greater Christian church itself sat in decades of ridiculous prosperity and riches while the nation practiced infanticide, killing hundreds of MILLIONS of babies murdered in the womb.  An entire generation of Americans murdered in the most precious and safest place that God ordained, simply for the sake of convenience for a hedonistic people to have illicit sex without consequences.  The churches by and large?  They hear, see and speak no evil against the evil being practiced in their midst.

Are Christians become as biblically illiterate and ignorant as the secular hedonists?  Do we think we will not be held to account for losing this gift of liberty and allowing such evil to go unchallenged? Do Christians now believe their is no judgment for their indifference and apathy?

I believe that it is the tiny remnant of Christians that have not turned their heads and have stood in the gap, that God has not judged the nation prevented it to suffer in collapse and ruin by the heinous weight of it’s national sins.  But scripture is clear – at some point the cup of iniquity overflows, and even God’s anointed would suffer along with a nation of people that were called by His Name – that refused to repent and do those things that God expected His people to be doing in the first place.

When reading a majority of the Founders, they understood that the civil society and liberty itself could only exist if the whole people were a moral and upright people who were self governed by God.  In modern parlance, Christians were intended to be the Jedi Knights of safeguarding the Republic by maintaining watch over the culture and keeping it on the straight and narrow path.  As the church’s influence faded – so too did your liberty and freedom.

And the church itself doesn’t seem to mind – as long as their collection plates keep getting filled and their II Timothy 3 generation of members are entertained with the smooth and easy things their itching ears want to hear.

The American Thinker has nailed the issue of the fading influence of the church in America.

The Church’s Fading Influence on American Culture

By Simon de Hundehutte

It seems people have misunderstood, as well as misrepresented, the church’s role and influence in “secular society.”  The early Christians lived in the secular society of Rome, but by heralding the good news of salvation, what some might call “thumping,” their words along with their deeds changed all of society of their day.  In present-day America, however, secularists have taken over and changed the rules of the debate on so many key cultural issues.

Religion, or more accurately, the Christian way of life, is being shoved out of not only politics but the American culture.  We believers are being forced to accept things anathema to our way of thinking and living — accept them or be labeled “haters” or, more recently, “thumpers.”

Every Christian is keenly aware of the Great Commission, where Jesus commanded, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19).  Christians in the earliest days of the Church did not keep silent about their faith, bringing it with them (and many times at great cost) into the public arena.  St. Paul debated at the illustrious Mars Hill with Greek and Athenian scholars (see Acts, Chapter 17).  Many there, in fact, welcomed his insights and reasoning skills.  Others, including both civic and religious leaders of the day, wanted him to keep his views to himself.

Think about it:  Christianity in a few hundred years after the resurrection of its namesake had changed the entire Roman Empire.  And certainly not by keeping its beliefs bottled up, only to be uncorked for an hour or two every Sunday.  No, the Good News was front-and-center in a believer’s life, sometimes even shouted from the mountaintops (when the spirit so moved).

But, I am afraid the days of free speech for Bible-believing Christians may be quickly winding down.  If the Supreme Court sanctions gay marriage, God and country will both soon fade away.  America will fast become like Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Germany.  It may be that the day is near when any church unwilling to preach the State’s “gospel” will not be allowed to exist.  (Woe to churches which currently meet on public property — in school auditoriums, for example.)

If we Christian’s are no longer able to share what the God of the Universe has revealed to us, how can anyone’s thinking on gay marriage or abortion or taking care of the planet or whatever be shaped or swayed?

I walked past a parked car the other day that was plastered with bumper stickers championing a far-left point of view.  One that especially grabbed my attention said, “The last time religion and politics mixed, People got burned at the stake!”

After pondering this for a second, I thought, I wish I could meet the driver of this car and let him know that a more accurate statement would be, “The last time religion and politics mixed, William Wilberforce freed the slaves.”  It has been Gospel-believing Christians, applying the tenets of the Word of God, who have taken on the huge challenges of humanity and, many times through much personal sacrifice (think martyrs), have freed many from bondage.

In the book of Romans, Paul challenges people to “be transformed by the renewing of your thinking.”  (Romans 12:2).  Will the Christian way of thinking be welcome in the “court of public opinion,” or will we just settle into being a country filled with people who have a bumper-sticker mentality, never having a thought beyond the cleverest saying we can slap onto the tail end of our vehicles.