Published on September 25, 1997. At the time, I was pastor of Our Father’s House in West Unity, Ohio.
America is in trouble…big trouble. The moral and ethical structure of our nation is crumbling at its very foundation. We, at one time, accepted that “the law of God” as our moral and ethical standard, but now relativism reigns supreme. Law, morality, and ethics are relative to the situation and the circumstance. It seems that there are no absolutes. We debate such issues as abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, homosexuality, etc and by our debate suggest that God has not spoken on these issues. God’s law is not a mystery. His law is clear. It is we, as defiant creatures, who have shaken our fist at the heavens and said, “we will not have You to rule over us.” As a result, instead of being ruled by the laws of Jehovah, we are ruled by the laws and system of corrupt humans. We have become a nation of people aptly described as “they did what was right in their own eyes.”
Who do we blame for the mess we’re in? It is easy to blame the politicians. It is easy to point the Clinton-Gore administration and say “they are the problem.” Recent articles in the Bryan Times reported on the meeting of the Christian Coalition. They were quick to blame the Democrats for all the ills in our society, all the while ignoring the ethical and moral lapses of those they support. (i.e. Newt Gingrich) No, I would contend that what we see in Washington is a consequence and not the source of our ills.
The blame must be laid on the Church and her ministers. There was a day when the Church and her ministers were respected and were considered the moral voice of the community and our nation. Such is not the case today. Society has concluded that the Church is irrelevant and her ministers are nothing more than educated buffoons. We are told to keep our religion within the four walls of the Church (separation of church and state you know!) and to keep our moral and ethical pronouncements to ourselves. If a prophetic voice is raised, screams about “thou shall not judge” are quickly heard. We, as ministers of the gospel, should be ashamed for allowing our voices to be silenced in such a manner. God has called us to be a clear voice of light in our decadent society. How can we be the prophets God has called us to be?
First, we need to be reminded of who the boss is in this world. It is not the government, it is not society, it is not any mere human; it is God. He is the Sovereign of the universe. He is the Creator and we are the creatures. Our society needs to be reminded of who is in charge and that we will all be held accountable on Judgment Day
Second, we need to be reminded of the authority of the Bible and the law of God. The Bible is God’s written revelation to man. His laws are to be loved and obeyed. The pulpits of America have been silent to the law of God and as a result antinomianism reigns. Church members have no absolutes and as a result they follow their own rules or “let their conscience be their guide.” The greatness of a nation is directly related to the respect and obedience it gives to the law of God.
Third, we need to return to being bastions of absolute truth and authority. Ministers need to be thundering prophets instead of mild, wimpy church mice. There is no time for compromise. The battle is real and we must fight. On Judgment Day we will not be judged on our popularity, but rather on how we faithfully fought the battle and kept the faith.
Fourth, we need to stop trying to be culturally relevant to such a degree that we sacrifice what is true and honoring to God. The appearance of Audio Adrenaline at the Williams County Fair is case in point. In an effort to “reach” young people (and perhaps fill the grandstands) two high-powered “Christian” rock ‘n roll groups were booked at the fair. When Audio Adrenaline took the stage the party began to rock ‘n roll. Complete with body piercing and mosh pits we were given a quick lesson on how far we have slipped in our Christian society. We see the troubles that young people face and we think that by lowering the standard in meeting them at the lowest common denominator we’ll “reach” them. Sadly we have been deceived. Young people need to hear truth, absolute truth. They need to hear preaching that challenges, provokes, and rebukes. They need to hear the kind of preaching that ultimately leads them to a higher standard in Jesus Christ. We have become convinced that the timeless methods that God has ordained no longer work. This is the ultimate deception.
Fifth, we need to return the word SIN to our vocabulary. God says sin is transgression of the law of God. The Church and her minister is not the final authority on what is holy and what is sin. God is. Ministers are called on to repeat what God has said. (thus saith the Lord) Because of the fear of man we do not preach on the “hard” subjects. We piously leave that to the “conscience” of the people. Such denial of responsibility will not wash with God on Judgment Day. We desperately need a revival of preaching against sin and preaching of the solution to sin that is found in Jesus Christ.
When will we learn that people want truth and not compromise? We fear being rejected or ridiculed. We fear our message will not be heard or that we will be viewed as a Bible thumping fanatic. Well, a cursory reading of the Bible will show that you would be in good company. The prophets of old did not conform to their society but instead demanded that their society conform to the truth of God’s Word. They demanded of all men everywhere, that they “repent and believe the gospel.”
I would ask my fellow ministers and fellow Christians when our eulogy is read what will be said? Will we be remembered as one who was a true follower of Jesus Christ? One who was faithful to His Holy Word? Will our life reflect one who was a radical follower of Jesus? Life is short and in but a few days we will pass from this life. Let us labor for that which is eternal. Let us restore those things we have let slip and restore God as the rightful ruler of our nation.
*this editorial might shed some light on why local Christians don’t know what to do with my defection from Christianity. I was a leader, a spokesman for the faithful. I wrote what they wished they could say. And now? An atheist? How can such things be?
Bruce,
Once again . . . . . WOW!! I would have been happy to say AMEN to what you wrote back then! WOW!
I am shocked.
A lot of people found my approach to life, the Bible, etc appealing. This is why they have such a hard time with me now being an atheist.
Holy crap bruce ,, your writing sounded so bizarre when laid out so starkly, but it is obviously standard fundamentalist drivel. The most obvious and glaring distortion is that any human could ascertain what is “true and honoring to god” by reading that confusing,cryptic,contradictory disaster known as the bible it is no wonder that your years of studying the scriptures finally put you in a position where you could no longer ignore reality.
When you are in the bubble it all makes sense. Contradictions in the Bible are relegated to the “God’s word is perfect and so the problem is my understanding” bin. I was very blind to the fact that my belief system was incoherent and illogical. (as are most religious systems of belief)
Once outside of the bubble I was free to see the Bible for what it was and once that happened my belief in God disappeared.
Holy crap, these two editorials were scary! 0_o
It’s interesting, though — it’s so obvious that the Bruce of then was, as one of the comments for the first editorial said, just parroting. There is no real feeling for how humans actually work. It’s like the current GOP: say something often enough, and forcefully enough, and it magically becomes true, no matter the actual facts. Just keep repeating that God’s law is supreme (whose god? which law?), and eventually we’ll have a nice, safe, little theocracy to control our lives while we wait for the Rapture. It’s so obvious now that you’ve allowed yourself to actually LOOK at the world and LEARN how people really live and love. Your compassion is evident in all your writing, but far from making you a “wimpy church mouse” it has made you all the more passionate about REAL justice, not just enforcement of a largely arbitrary set of rules that so often ignore or even subvert human dignity.
Under the heading of “Theological WTF?”: “On Judgment Day we will not be judged on our popularity, but rather on how we faithfully fought the battle and kept the faith.” But I thought Judgment Day only separated the wheat from the chaff — as long as you had the Right Belief, what does it matter what you did? Faith only, right? Or would God still let you into heaven even if you didn’t “fight the battle” hard enough, but would take out the time to humiliate you in front of everyone first? Ah, the problems of soteriology and logic — never the twain shall meet.
I believed there was a direct connection between right belief and right living. For most of my years in the ministry, I never bought into cheap grace Christianity. I believed that a person who said they were a Christian should live like one. Of course, this was an impossible standard that I , nor anyone else, could keep.
I was a big fan of the Reformers and the Puritans. I loved the old English Calvinists.
Seems so crazy now…but in the moment it all made sense.
#1: I don’t see too many sermons masquerading as letters to the editor in my local newspaper – thankfully.
#2: WFT – a religious rock band at the county fair? Another reason to be thankful I live where I do – we just get your usual retinue of washed up old secular rockers at our fairs.
#3: Bruce was actually right in his letter: modern churches are relativistic about morality. They aren’t very concerned about teaching the real precepts of the bible or helping people to be better christians. Those things are a turnoff, and they know it, so they make their venue and their message palatable, even fun. Seeing the disconnect between how my fellow churchgoers lived and what I thought the bible taught was one of the main things that drove me towards atheism. And by saying “how they lived” I don’t mean they were bad people. But they came to church for the social scene, and didn’t bother to read the bible; they didn’t spend hours in prayer or helping people. They weren’t “on fire” for god. I was a super-committed christian and I didn’t realize any special rewards from god…even intangible rewards. People who were naturally charismatic or had prestigious jobs were given way more respect and admiration than those of us who really worked hard at our christianity. When you live that experience, your decision to leave religion behind is as much something you feel as what you believe.
There was about five years between my last pastorate and my becoming an atheist. I call these my disaffected years. I was still a committed Christian and I desperately wanted to find a church that took seriously the teachings of the Bible, especially the teachings of Christ. As U2 sings, I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.
I guess some would find your old views appealling. There is evidence from psychology and neuroscience that we are somewhat hardwired to be suceptible to “fundamentalist” style of thnking. First, there is an appealling aspect to “certainty” ie we like things to be black and white . Second, our sense of well being tends to rise when we feel that we are a part of a protected group that operates with more truth than everyone else..its no wonder that so many of us fell into fundamentalist religious thinking patterns