Details

Written by Rex M. Rogers

Published: 02 October 2023

I’ve been trying to rethink my approach to sharing what I believe. Will you join me in this?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #111 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how I analyze current issues and events, and how then I apply a Christian worldview to these developments.

I suppose some might say, I hope, that I do a reasonably good job of identifying and detailing the problems, that I can tell you what’s happening, what’s wrong with it or threatening about it, maybe who’s behind it. I can describe the emerging worldview or rejection of historic Judeo-Christian values. Drawing on the scholarship and evaluations of many others, I can even predict what might happen next, that is, where this slippery slope is headed.

I can describe our American 21^st Century culture that’s constantly offended at anything and seemingly everything, the culture giving itself over to nihilism and perpetual rage. This culture is not a pretty picture.

All this is well and good, and I’d argue necessary if we are to understand the post-Christian culture in which we now live.

But if my assessment of my own abilities and track record are accurate, then OK, what’s the problem?

The problem is that I don’t think I am nearly as adept at providing or recommending solutions, in particular biblical remedies for the challenges we face in our post-Christian age. Or if I am, I don’t spend as much time on this part of the situation report, thus potentially leaving those who listen to me feeling down, discouraged, and God forbid, hopeless.

It’s easy to do this. In a speaking engagement, Sunday School class, blog, radio program or podcast, there is only so much time or words to configure a topic. You have to get in, say something meaningful, and get out. OK, but how does one use the available time and space?

Too much time on background and definitions, trends, and current stats—to set the scene, and viola, time’s up. No time for, “OK, what does God want us to do about this?”

I know I have done this, and God forgive me, it bothers me to think I’ve left people with a sense of the problem but beaten down or befuddled about how to respond.

For what became a 1976 best-selling book, the late Francis A. Schaeffer famously borrowed his title from the Old Testament passage, Ezek. 33:10, “How should we then live?”

That’s the point. How can I do differently in my analysis, such that I point listeners toward hope, not hopelessness, toward what God says about “How should we then live?” in this present post-Christian culture?

In his 2018 book, The Church in Babylon: Heeding the Call to Be a Light in the Darkness, theologian Erwin Lutzer says, “We have lost the culture war. The winners are drooling over the spoils. (Referring to the Jewish captivity in ancient Babylon, he said,) but we must remember that God didn’t abandon the Jews to random fate, nor does Jesus abandon us to our own foolishness.

Jesus promises us, ‘Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age’ (Matt 28:20). Things are not what they appear. Temporary victories and defeats do not tell the whole story. The story will only be written when Jesus returns to settle forever who the winners and losers are.”

Then Lutzer goes on. “Babylon, the United States, the Middle East, China—God is not intimidated by humanism, Islam, or American leftists. He will lead us if we seek him. There is no combination of Satan along with his demons that can permanently defeat us if God thinks we have work to do.”

Lutzer noted that there is blessing in desperation—people turn to God when they find themselves in trouble, and there is encouragement in divine sovereignty—

Christians can be forever optimistic because we know the author of the story—“his-story”—and we know the end of the story. Our task is not to be winners or to be successful per se. Our task is to be faithful.

So, part of providing hope is to provide perspective, an accurate and truthful big picture, and that means answering the question as best we can, What is God doing?

Scripture is eminently clear, not necessarily about the details of the future, but who holds the future and how we should relate to him.

• God is Sovereign, omniscient, and omnipotent. He is never surprised, never confused, never not in charge.
• In his Word, God has given us “everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of himwho called us by his own glory and goodness” (2 Pet 1:3).
• Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, and Jesus said, “Never will I leave you;never will I forsake you” (Heb. 13:5).
• The Apostle Paul said, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-39).

Now, none of this means that we should ignore life challenges. We live in a real world with real challenges. God expects us to be “in the world” even as he expects us to be “not of the world” (Jn 17).

This does not mean we ignore current problems and pain. It means we look upon these things with perspective.

I want to do a better job of reminding people that God is there, and he is not silent, that God is God in the face of the world’s false ideological “isms” and in the midst of life’s trials. Indeed, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. I will fear no evil,” Why?  “Foryou are with me” (Ps 23:4).

I want to do a better job of reminding people that God is working…now.

For example, we know that God is doing more among Muslims than at any time in history. We know this because of what SAT-7, the ministry with which I serve, hears and sees on a daily basis and because of what other Middle East ministries tell us. We should find this encouraging and spiritually energizing.

We know God worked in ancient Babylon, and he is the same God today, so we know he will work and is working in our, so to speak, “Babylonian culture.”

We know that while people can mean things for evil, God can mean them, or use them, for good. As I noted in another podcast, there is no better illustration of this than the Roman cross, an instrument of pain, shame, and death that God turned into an international symbol of redemption and hope because of the work of Jesus Christ.

We know that things are not worse now in our post-Christian culture than they were for the early church in the First Century A.D. If God was faithful to the new believers then, he can be and he is faithful to believers now. If he could send revival into the prideful Roman Empire, he can send revival into our prideful culture today.

We know that for every sin there is a biblical remedy, a biblical solution provided by faith through grace in Christ.

We know there is nothing in this world, no circumstances, opportunities, and challenges of life beyond the ken of God’s Word. Consequently, we can seek to apply our Christian or biblical worldview to everything we experience.

What really does God want us to do and therefore, how should we then live? We can do this with everything in life. We can review, consider, and discern what does God want us to do and therefore, how should we then live?

We can do this with a pandemic, with sexual liberation issues, national security, education, race and racism, and business. God is there and he is not silent.

Our task – my task I think – is to share his voice of truth and hope.

Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com.  

And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2023   

*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.  

Details

Written by Rex M. Rogers

Published: 25 September 2023

We’ve heard about so-called “Woke” policies, but what we need is not more people woke; we need more people awake.

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #111 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.

For some time now, reaching back before COVID, I have become increasingly concerned with the direction the United States and American culture have taken.

As I’ve noted before in other podcasts, if you are of a certain age, you could be forgiven if you say you don’t recognize your own country. Things have changed that much, and most of it for the worse.

As a believer trusting the sovereignty of God, these changes do not frighten me, but then again, I do not like them, and I believe these changes are a child of not simply wrong ideas but evil intent.

Another thing that bothers me is that I really don’t think that most people, i.e., the average person, however you want to define that phrase, is aware of how significantly and rapidly things have changed and are changing. I don’t state this observation in an arrogant way, meaning I know something no one else knows.

I don’t mean to imply that others are not smart, though they may be uninformed, just as I am uninformed about a host of things that do not happen to interest me or about which I haven’t heard. But still, I believe many hard-working, decent Americans, whatever their faith, may not be aware of the extensiveness of social change taking place and the threat it introduces.

To illustrate, let’s talk for a few minutes about politics and ideology.

When I write these podcasts, as I did long ago in blogs or writing content for a radio program that I voiced for Cornerstone University’s radio station WCSG, called “Making a Difference,” I try not to be intentionally partisan. I don’t want to write like another party hack, someone who thinks his or her political party and its leaders can do no wrong. Because for one, this is one of our problems today. 

Too many if not most media outlets and most journalists if they can be called that anymore are simply partisan advocates. They do not seek truth, only political advantage, leverage, and like-minded listenership. 

I don’t want to write more partisan drivel. I want to try to think critically, and I want to attempt to apply a Christian worldview to issues and events, which means I have to be free to critique not just the Democrats but also the Republicans, and Independents along with everyone else.

But things have changed markedly in just the few years since year 2000, and especially since COVID.

For one, the Democrat Party is now virtually entirely controlled by its most liberal or some would say, radical, wing.

Almost nothing leading Democrat politicians say or do, including especially President Joe Biden and VP Kamala Harris, and their Administration, presents anything but socialist policies enhancing big government and undermining personal property and free enterprise, then promoting immoral sexual libertinism, fear-mongering intended to increase their political power, climate change voodoo, authoritarian ideas dismissing freedom of speech, the press, or even religion, a promotion of irrational egalitarianism and victimhood, soft-on-crime lawlessness, globalist anti-Americanism, warped science, and abortion on demand as a civil right.

Well, you say, thank God for the Republican Party and its political leaders. Maybe, but mostly they are not much better. Not anymore.

Republicans, the supposedly fiscally conservative party, have participated in increasing the National Debt to its current level of $33 Trillion, run scared of end-of-the-world climate change lobbies, are just as susceptible as others to fear-mongering, ever-increasing taxes, immoral sexual practices, and a wishy-washiness on southern border security, and more.

Both party’s leaders have engaged in intentional prevarication, a fancy word for lying. Both party’s leading candidates for President in 2024 come with a long list of character flaws; neither is a paragon of virtue.

Worse than all this, I think most people do not realize America is no longer a two-party system, Democrat and Republican. No, now there is a group called Progressives, an inaccurate euphemism for The Left or Leftists or Leftism, an ideology wholly different from traditional conservatism or classical liberalism, an ideology promoting views that FDR, JFK, and Martin Luther King, Jr would not recognize.

Progressives lodge mostly in the Democrat Party, but they have plenty of allies within the Republican Party, especially among younger voices.

I’d rather call Progressives what they are – Socialist Leftists – but this is awkward wording, so I’ll stick with Progressives.

Progressives are not the same as Liberals. I’ve talked about this before in a podcasts called “Not Liberal But Left, That’s the Threat,” and “What the Left Believes.”

Progressives “hold that it is possible to improve human societies through political action.”Progressives are leftist, radical, secularist, socialist, Marxist, anti-American ideologues who are pushing an unrelenting attack on America’s history, culture, and core values. They are anti-Judeo-Christianity and its moral code, anti-meritocracy, pro-political correctness, anti-education in terms of critical thinking and objective truth while promoting indoctrination of their political narrative focusing upon what they call social justice.

Progressives have made climate change a religion and work to persecute anyone who disagrees with their views. Many of them would love China’s new social credit system that tracks how citizens behave and records demerits on their record for officials to reference later.

Progressives are anti-family, primarily because they are godless libertines who want the world to become non-binary and androgynous.

Let me repeat, Progressives or Leftists are not the same as Liberals. They embrace ideas and values – radical leftist ideologies – old fashioned Liberals would never have understood, not the least of which is anti-patriotism and anti-Americanism. Progressives are operating like a political party, but they are not organized as such and are therefore virtually unaccountable.

Progressives are masterful in making their message the prevailing acceptable narrative. “Progressives ask: ‘What is unfair?’ ‘What am I owed?’ ‘What has offended me today?’ ‘What must my country do for me?” They are not working in America’s best interest but in the service of a divisive, demoralizing, destructive political destination they market as an utopian heaven on earth.

Progressives promote racist “diversity seminars” in the name of, you guessed it, anti-racism. Their god is not equality before the law or equal opportunity, but DEI, diversity, equity, inclusion, words, and initiatives used to bludgeon institutions into obeisance to woke rules, beginning with public schools and universities and working out to entertainment, sports, corporations, and government.

Progressives, or the Left, and the millions now in their thrall, are a perfect example of what the Apostle Paul talked about in 2 Thess. 2:9-12, “The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.”

People are operating today under what the Bible calls a powerful or strong delusion. As the Apostle Peter said, people “deliberately forget” or in other Bible versions, are “willingly ignorant” (2 Pet. 3:5).

Deliberately, willingly believing a lie rather than the truth. There could not be a more apt description of American culture today.

Erwin Lutzer observed that “secular progressivism is a passion to profane what is sacred. Anything that dismantles Christian influence and enhances the Left’s power is progressive. It seeks to deconstruct American laws and systems to replace them with socialism and tyranny.”

What I fear is not Progressives. What I fear is that many Christians and the average American are asleep. We do not need to be “woke,” but we certainly need to be awake. We must recognize that the battle has long-since been joined, that Leftist Progressives have all but taken over American culture.

Every day, ideas and values contrary to American Judeo-Christian foundational values that allowed this country to grow and flourish, are being systematically taught in American public education, kindergarten through graduate school.

Every day, youth are taught not to sacrifice, work hard, delay gratification, control impulses, act with integrity and moral restraint, but rather to make demands about what they consider theirs by right. 

Every day, Leftist Progressive values are integrated in television programming, including cartoons, and every day, these anti-biblical values are being repeatedly messaged in commercials. 

The Left, so-called Progressives, are more in control, more influential, more threatening than Liberalism, Democrats or Republicans.

We need people to wake up, reject the woke, and recognize Leftist Progressives for what they are, the enemy within.

Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com. 

And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2023    

*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.  

Details

Written by Rex M. Rogers

Published: 18 September 2023

The cross, which humanity meant for evil, was a simple wooden construction, yet God meant it for good and it became a worldwide icon of sacrifice, Yes, but even more of Hope.

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #109 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.

You remember the Old Testament story of Joseph and his brothers? 

When Joseph was a youth, his older brothers became jealous at how their father favored him, and eventually, in an unbelievable pique of evil arrogance they plotted to kill him but then thought better of shedding blood and sold Joseph into slavery to a passing caravan of Ishmaelites heading down into Egypt (Gen. 37).

Over the next several years in servitude, then in prison, the Lord protected and blessed Joseph, positioning him for the time he’d be ready to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams about seven fat cows and seven skinny cows portending seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine in Egypt (Gen. 41).

Pharoah showed his gratitude by wisely promoting Joseph from prison to second-in-command of all Egypt, in charge of storing grain during the fat years to be ready for use during the coming seven lean years. In the midst of this regional scarcity, Joseph’s father, Jacob, sent his sons to Egypt to trade for grain, and you guessed it, they meet their long lost and presumed dead brother, Joseph, now one of the most powerful men in the world.

There’s more to the story, but eventually after Jacob dies, the brothers approach Joseph in abject fear, asking for forgiveness, “then came and threw themselves down before him, (and they said) ‘We are your slaves,’ (Gen. 50:18).

But Joseph said to them “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done,” (Gen. 50:19-20).

This is the key to this true story. What human beings mean for evil God can turn to good.

I can think of no better example of this biblical teaching than this than the crucifixion cross. This simple piece of carpentry was designed as a gruesome and horrific tool of excruciating suffering, torture, and shame leading to death. But in the case of the Savior Jesus’s cross, it has become an international symbol of redemption and hope.

“The cross is the central image or symbol of Christianity…Many Christians wear a cross around their neck or on their lapel as a badge that identifies them publicly as Christians. Some crosses are elaborate and expensive works of art, while others are very simple.”

Some wear crosses as identification, while some wear it as decoration, but wear it they do. In fact, in all likelihood there is not a day goes by in which there aren’t thousands wearing a cross in some manner, now even as tattoos. 

“The startling transformation of the cross as a symbol came about through Jesus’ death and resurrection. We must remember always that the passion predictions in the Gospels are also resurrection predictions: each one ends with a mention of Jesus’ resurrection. Nevertheless, without the cross there would be no resurrection. 

The cross as the central Christian symbol takes in the entire paschal mystery and issues in the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus.”

I have known of people who see the cross only as an horrendous abomination, something so disgusting and threatening it should never be displayed, much less celebrated. I respect their point of view, though I do not agree.

To me, the cross is both a symbol of bloodshed, and a symbol of blood sacrificed for the sins of the world.

The cross is a symbol of death and defeat but also a symbol of resurrection and victory,

a symbol of punishment, but a symbol of redemption and reconciliation,

a symbol of destruction, and a symbol of life eternal,

a symbol of suffering, and a symbol of hope,

a symbol of hate or judgment, and a symbol of love and forgiveness,

a symbol of the worst news possible, and a symbol of the Gospel, the Good News,

a symbol of Christ himself and of the faith of Christians.

“Before the time of the emperor Constantine in the 4th century, Christians were extremely reticent about portraying the cross because too open a display of it might expose them to ridicule or danger. 

After Constantine converted to Christianity, he abolished crucifixion as a death penalty and promoted, as symbols of the Christian faith, both the cross and the chi-rho monogram of the name of Christ. The symbols became immensely popular in Christian art and funerary monuments from c. 350.”

“The crucifix, a model of the Christian cross upon which is a depiction of the crucified Christ” has been popular for centuries, especially for the Roman Catholic Church. Early Christians avoided realistic portrayal of his suffering, while by the 9th Century, artists stressed realistic aspects of Christ’s suffering and death. “Reformed churches resisted such use of the cross until the 20th century, when ornamental crosses on church buildings and on communion tables began to appear.”

Now, I prefer the empty cross over the crucifix, primarily because it’s very emptiness is a loud proclamation of victorious and glorious hope, both now and eternally.

Remarkable things have occurred relative to the cross. “The original 9/11 cross—a perfectly proportioned cross formed from the steel girders of the previously standing Twin Towers—was found in the wreckage of the Twin Towers and subsequently mounted on the site Oct. 15, 2006, where it stayed until it was moved July 23, 2011, to the September 11 Memorial and Museum at the former World Trade Center site across the street.” It remains today a statement of hope.

What human beings mean for evil God can turn to good.

Consider the Diaspora. “The first use of the word diaspora is found in John 7:35 in reference to the dispersed Jews living among the Greeks. In Acts 8:1-4 it is the Jewish Christians who were scattered or dispersed as a result of the stoning of the first martyr Stephen. By Acts 11:19, we again find use of this term in connection with scattered Jewish Christians, with some beginning to share the gospel message with Gentiles. James is addressed "To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion" (James 1:1). However, in this context the audience consists of Jewish Christians who lived in a variety of locations. First Peter 1:1 also addresses scattered peoples: "To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia." In Peter's case, he wrote to both Jewish and Gentile Christians living in these areas, revealing that in some cases this word was being used in a new sense to include the scattered people of God from a Christian perspective.”

Early Christians fled in the face of persecution, but while the persecution was intended to squelch the growth of Christianity, it had the opposite effect, scattering believers to the four corners of the earth. What human beings mean for evil God can turn to good.

What are we to think of America’s current social chaos? In the face of moral upheaval are we to hide in bunkers, withdraw to isolated Christian communes, throw in the towel? Or are we to go “into the world” while being “not of the world” as we are commanded in John 17? If the current culture’s pell-mell rush to nihilism is a result of self-absorption, sin, and Satan, is it also perhaps in the providence of God our opportunity to shine the Light brighter in the midst of darkness? What people meant for evil, God meant for good.

In 2 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul reminded us, “Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.”

Allow me to read that phrase again: “by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.” Our task, our opportunity in the face of increasing false religions and moral decadence is that we can be ambassadors of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:11-21). We can be truth-tellers.

The Apostle Paul continues: “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ,” (2 Cor. 4).

The cross represents the Good News of Jesus Christ, and we get to communicate this Good News, knowing that what people mean for evil, God can turn to good.

Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com.  

And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2023   

*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.  

Details

Written by Rex M. Rogers

Published: 11 September 2023

Have you noticed how often mental health is now referenced by celebrities, sports figures, and politicians? 

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #108 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.

For a while now, reaching back at least into the COVID experience, I’ve noticed that mental health seems to have taken center stage, particularly among the young. Sports figures like Olympics swimming gold medalist Michael Phelps, Japanese professional tennis player Naomi Osaka, and Olympic gymnastics star Simone Biles have all revealed struggles with what they called mental health issues. 

Actor Elizabeth Olsen addressed her mental health struggles, which she only experienced when she was living in New York at age 21. "I remember I would get [panic attacks] on the hour every hour," Olsen recalled. "I used to live on 13th Street between 6th and 7th. I was crossing 6th Avenue at 14th Street, and I realized I couldn't cross the street — I stood up against the wall, and I just thought I was going to drop dead at any moment."

Singer Selena Gomez, said, “Last year, I was suffering mentally and emotionally, and I wasn't able to stay all that kept together. I wasn't able to hold a smile or to keep things normal…It felt like all of my pain and anxiety washed over me all at once and it was one of the scariest moments of my life.”

These athletes and entertainers are people in peak physical condition, in their 20s and 30s, and they live with considerable resources and access to entire entourages of support. Yet they have struggled with mental health issues.

Of course, fame and fortune are no barriers to stress, emotional traumas, depression, and tragedy. I understand that these people are just human beings like the rest of us, and in no way am I expressing disrespect or making light of them or their struggles. I recognize, too, that mental health issues are real, and that people can experience an extensive variety of mental challenges, some rooted in their own earlier choices and behaviors, some traced to sources of no fault of their own, e.g., difficult a family upbringing or physiological imbalances. Whether Nature or Nurture, we live in a fallen world and many things can contribute to mental ill-health.

While my heart goes out to anyone struggling with mental health issues, I wonder why there is a significant increase of this challenge in the US, especially among female and also wealthier adolescents: mood swings, psychological distress, eating disorders, depression, anxiety and panic attacks, suicide-related outcomes, psychosis symptoms. Some say this is happening due to loneliness or frightening current events or social media isolation or drugs. In the U.S., this phenomenon is being called a mental health crisis.

I am also concerned when I hear Christian leaders, churches, or Christian ministries talk about mental health as the primary goal of their ministries. This is a relatively new thing, religious organizations suppressing, let’s call it spiritual vocabulary, in favor of psychological vocabulary, medicalizing spiritual issues. Theology is replaced by therapy.

This watering down trend that trades theology for therapy is part of a larger DIY religioun movement in the US – described with a ten-dollar phrase, Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.

The term, Moralistic Therapeutic Deism was first introduced in the 2005 book, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers by the sociologist Christian Smith with Melinda Lundquist Denton. The authors coined the term to “describe the (religious) system as being ‘about providing therapeutic benefits to its adherent’ as opposed to being about things like ‘repentance from sin, of keeping the Sabbath, of living as a servant of a sovereign divine, of steadfastly saying one's prayers, of faithfully observing high holy days, of building character through suffering…’ and further as ‘belief in a particular kind of God: one who exists, created the world, and defines our general moral order, but not one who is particularly personally involved in one's affairs – especially affairs in which one would prefer not to have God involved.’

The authors state that ‘a significant part of Christianity in the United States is actually only tenuously Christian in any sense that is seriously connected to the actual historical Christian tradition, but has rather substantially morphed into Christianity's misbegotten stepcousin, Christian Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.”

“A church has become therapeutic if the gospel is reduced, and reducible, to the premises and vocabulary, concepts and recommendations of therapy. A therapeutic church does not speak of sin, judgment, guilt, shame, wrath, hell, repentance, punishment, suffering, crucifixion, deliverance, salvation, Satan, demons, exorcism, and so forth.

It takes most or all of these to be in need of translation or elimination: the latter, because they are outmoded or harmful to mental health; the former, because they are applicable to contemporary life but only in psychological, not spiritual, terms. A therapeutic church speaks instead, therefore, of wellness, health, toxicity, self-care, harm, safety, balance, affirmation, holding space, and being well-adjusted.”

“The question is not whether mental health is real (it is), whether medication is sometimes worth prescribing (it is), or whether therapy can be helpful (it can be). The question is whether mental health is convertible with spiritual health. The question, that is, is whether the work of therapy is synonymous with the work of the gospel; whether the task of the counselor is one and the same as that of the pastor. Answer: It is not.”

The “therapeutic church is atheist because it has lost its raison d’être: it preaches a gospel without God.”

“A therapeutic church has, in way, lost its nerve. It simply does not believe what it says it believes, what it is supposed to be preaching. It does not believe that the God revealed in Jesus Christ is the best possible news on planet earth, meant for every soul under heaven. It does not believe that the problems of people today, as at all times, have their final answer and ultimate fulfillment in the Word made flesh. Or, to the extent that it does believe this, it is scared to say so, because the folks in the pews do not want to hear that. They want to be affirmed in their identities, in their desires, in their blemishes and failures and foibles. They do not want to be judged by God. They do not want to be told they need saving by God.  They do not want to learn that their plight is so dire that the God who created the universe had to die for their sins on a cross. They want to be told: I’m okay, you’re okay, we’re all okay—so long as we accept our imperfections and refuse the siren songs of guilt and shame. They want, in a word, to be heard, to be seen, and to be accepted just as they are.”

But “God is not a therapist, and his principal goal in Christ is not to ensure a high degree of mental health in the context of a larger successful venture in upper-middle class professional/family life. God, rather, is in the business of holiness.”

“Does this mean that America is becoming more secularized? Not necessarily…Christianity is either degenerating into a pathetic version of itself or, more significantly, Christianity is actively being colonized and displaced by a quite different religious faith. This radical transformation of Christian theology and Christian belief replaces the sovereignty of God with the sovereignty of the self. In this therapeutic age, human problems are reduced to pathologies in need of a treatment plan. Sin is simply excluded from the picture, and doctrines as central as the wrath and justice of God are discarded as out of step with the times and unhelpful to the project of self-actualization.”

“According to the veteran researcher (George) Barna, ‘Practitioners of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism are not anti-religion or anti-Christianity. They just are not willing to surrender themselves to authentic Christianity’s demands—or to believe that a real faith would even make such demands of them.’”

“As Barna noted, ‘It seems that most of these folks want to do the right thing; they simply have been led down the wrong paths toward achieving that end.’”

The “therapeutic gospel concerns itself with people’s ‘felt needs’: for love, significance, self-esteem, self-confidence, self-assertion, pleasure, and excitement. The therapeutic gospel gives people what they want. It makes them feel better—at least temporarily. It centers around the welfare of man and temporal happiness. But…it discards the glory of God in Christ. It forfeits the narrow, difficult road that brings deep human flourishing and eternal joy…(Yet it is) the gospel of Jesus Christ brings change through repentance, faith, and transformation into the image of the Son.”

Therapy asks us to change ourselves, something we cannot do.

Theology provides a way through the Word for God to change us.

“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness” (2 Pet. 1:3).

Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com. 

And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2023   

*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.  

Details

Written by Rex M. Rogers

Published: 06 September 2023

Have you noticed that American culture seems to be drifting away from its founding Judeo-Christian values? Does this mean America is secularizing? Does it matter?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #107 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.

When I was in grad school in the late 70s-early 80s, one of the issues we talked about was “secularization,” the “historical process in which religion declines in social and cultural significance. As a result of secularization the role of religion in modern societies becomes restricted. In secularized societies faith lacks cultural authority, and religious organizations have little social power.”

OK, fair enough. Many examples can be cited. But the mistake much of the scholarship made back then was to assume that people would move from religion to irreligion, from religion to religionlesness, that somehow human beings could and would reach a point of development in which faith in God and religious practices were no longer necessary to life. Those scholars envisioned a world without religion.

But it didn’t happen. While traditional religion has become publicly less important in the West, including in the United States, worldwide, religion is as great an influence, if not more so, than ever.

One of the problems with those secularization studies is that they were written with a bias. Many academics were themselves religiously non-practicing. They often came from religious homes but tossed this aside in college. So, they expected to find others doing the same, because for them this was the rational, reasonable, scientific thing to do.

But let’s offer a counter thesis: There are no religionless human beings. Since Adam and Eve, no individuals have ever existed who are not at their core a religious being.

By “religious” I do not mean adherents of traditional or institutional religion. Bureaucracies.

By religious, I mean one possesses an innate God consciousness, a moral capacity to reason about right and wrong, a desire to know who we are, what is our purpose, and what is our destiny, and with this to consider the existential questions, Is there a God? Does he know me? What is the source of evil or sin? What happens when I die?

I believe God instilled all this in human beings when he said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:26-27).

Now many people claim to be religionless. But even atheists position themselves as not believing in what? God. They form a presupposition about the Almighty, which is an inherently religious action.

The Collins English Dictionary defines religionless as, “people lacking religious beliefs. Lacking or devoid of religion.” But this is colloquial not philosophical definition. No one is wholly lacking in religious beliefs.

Merriam-Webster gets closer, defining religionless as, “atheistical, lacking religious emotions, principles, or practices.”

OK, people who do not act religious. They exist, but they are still religious because to live in the world, every human being must make assumptions about God, humanity, life and being, purpose, truth, morality. It is impossible to live without making these judgments, whether consciously or subconsciously, and these assumptions determine one’s values and choices. 

So, yes, there are many examples of people acting out in a manner that suggests they are without religious understanding. But still, as our thesis posits, at their core, they are religious.

In America today we are experiencing a downward trend in those who say they are religious and an upward trend in those who say, “No Religion,” now 30% of the population, a figure that has nearly doubled in the past 15 years. These are “people who self-describe as atheists, agnostics or ‘nothing in particular’ when asked about their religious identity” – the so-called “Nones.” 

Now we could just write this social development off as, live and let live. It’s a free country. What someone else believes really doesn’t matter all that much to me, right?

But is this the case?

When a person rejects traditional religious understanding, which in the United States is Judeo-Christian principles, what he or she is doing is replacing one set of assumptions with another set of assumptions. These folks may be Nones in terms of engagement with institutional religion or Judeo-Christian outlooks on life, 

but they are not Nones in terms of religious ideas. Remember our thesis – there are no religionless human beings. 

So as Americans jettison Judeo-Christian religious affiliation a new religious persuasion, not secularism per se, is replacing it, and with this new persuasion, new values.

Christian social researcher George Barna calls the new DIY religious persuasion Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, a mouthful for sure, but it simply means belief in a God, no moral absolutes, doing the best you can, being nice meaning inclusive, and focusing upon your well-being. 

Again, why does another person’s religious assumptions matter to you or me?

Well, because when a lot of people adopt views different from, even contrary to Judeo-Christian principles, then they act on their values, they create a chaotic culture. That’s what we are seeing today.

In contemporary culture, if you just watch social developments and read or watch social and legacy media, you’ll find incessant messaging arguing the following values define life:

1. Personal happiness is the end all, be all of life.

Such a culture embraces and promotes abortion on demand, prenuptial agreements and easy divorce that diminish marriage and family, and affluence as the measure of wellbeing, all of which are evident in programs like “Real Housewives” of name-the-city.

2. Sexual fulfillment is the greatest source of happiness.

Such a culture embraces sexual libertinism, equates lust with love, allows or promotes child sexual abuse in the form of transgenderism, even embraces perversion-as-normality, like “50 Shades of Grey.”

3. Socially determined gender, not biological sex, defines human reality.

Such a culture celebrates men identifying as women and cheating in sports, allows them access to women’s locker rooms and prisons (guess what assaults result from this) and parades twisted men or women as examples of bravery or achievement, like Bud Light tried to do putting a man trans woman on their beer cans, only to experience “Go Woke, Go Broke.”

4. Racial determinism means offenses based upon race are now found in virtually every experience of daily life.

Such a culture embraces so-called “anti-racism,” a philosophy tragically racist in values, attitudes, and impact. We see this in the activities of charlatan groups like Black Lives Matter and the Critical Race Theory taught in schools. 

5. Truth is a matter of preference.

Such a culture allows gender, race, and ideology to trump truth. Consequently, laws are unenforceable, and order is at risk, organized looters steal at will in major cities, and criminal perpetrators go unprosecuted. Utterly irrational ideas are promoted, like defund the police, no prosecution for social statement crimes, which we see in how youthful looters and even those wielding weapons are ignored in Chicago.

6. Mental health is the definition of well-being.

Such cultures are built upon churches that have reduced the gospel to psychological conversations about wellness, self-care, safety, and affirmation. Sin, judgment, guilt, hell, forgiveness, repentance, and salvation are unwelcome topics, because people want to be told: I’m okay, you’re okay, we’re all okay.

Our non-Christian neighbors are not secular. They are not religionless. They may think of themselves as Nones, but in their pursuit of happiness, they are following a false DIY religious worldview.

So, yes, if our neighbors embrace a surrogate, idolatrous religion, there will be, and there already has been, consequences for American culture. What someone else believes really does matter.

Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com. 

And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2023   

*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.