Note: I do not think the world is in moral decline. Different? Changing? Yes, but not in moral decline. What we consider moral or immoral is changing, and entrenched, unmoveable Evangelical Christians think this is a sign of moral decay. I am addressing the common Evangelical belief that the world is getting morally worse by the day, especially as the second coming of Christ approaches, and the unsaved are to blame.
Evangelical apologists are fond of blaming non-Christians for the world’s ills. If everyone would only get saved and worship the Evangelical deity, Christian nirvana would arrive. The various culture wars would be fulfilled, with Evangelical churches filled to the brim with people. All would be love, joy, and peace, right?
The Bible puts the blame for the world’s ills on different people; namely Christians. That’s right, Christians are to blame for the sorry state of the world. Second Chronicles 7:14 says:
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
Let me break this down. God promises to forgive our sins and heal our land IF and when — and only if and when — Christians (who are called by his name) humble themselves, pray, seek the face of God, and turn from their wicked ways.
Instead of putting Second Chronicles 7:14 into action, Evangelicals blame everyone but themselves for the state of the world. Look at Dr. David Tee’s behavior in the comment section of his post, Is Providing Unbelievers “Evidence” a Waste of Time? By Derrick Thiessen. He accepts no responsibility or accountability for anything. This is standard Evangelical fare. Atheists are to blame. Agnostics are to blame. Catholics are to blame. Pagans are to blame. Humanists are to blame. Liberals are to blame. “Abortionists” are to blame. LGBTQ people are to blame. Immigrants are to blame. Democrats are to blame. Science is to blame. Mainline Christians are to blame. Muslims are to blame. Hollywood is to blame. Rock music is to blame. Satan is to blame. Demons are to blame. Pornographers are to blame. Feminists are to blame. Elvis is to blame. Illegal drugs are to blame. Public schools are to blame. Joe Biden is to blame. Blame, blame, blame, with zero personal accountability.
God will not be mocked, Evangelicals. Whatever you sow, you will reap. Want the world to change? Humble yourself, pray, seek the face of God, and turn [repent] from your wicked ways. And if you do that, not one of you will vote for Donald Trump. That upwards of eighty percent of Evangelicals plan to vote for Trump in November tells me that they haven’t read Second Chronicles 7:14 in a while. Either that or their lust for political and social power drowns out all sense of duty to God and love for their fellow bipeds.
Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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What a great post Bruce. I shall keep that one in my pocket for further use.
Second Chronicles 7:14
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
I mean seriously. You’d think this verse alone would bring them to their knees.
What needs to happen is the south which is red states needs to rise up and elect Donald Trump as the second president of the Confederate States of America.
Then the liberal yankee north can have the jester/Baby murdering dementia patient that stands at the podium in a half poop squat going “HUHHHH?????”
And better yet turn liberal north into a parking lot
.
Bruce, hello, I would like to express appreciation for your posts. I am struggling to make an appropriate comment
about your health, so let me just say, I hope that your physical health cooperates with you as much as is “humanly”
possible.
Like millions (or is it billions) of people, I too struggle to understand “right from wrong”, good behavior from bad,
and of course the place of religon in my life.
My particular background is far different than yours. My parents paid little attention to religon. Mom being a drunk and my dad, to escape moms addiction, immersing himself into capatalism.
If you are familiar with Aron Ra, a prominant atheist podcaster, he has an interesting take on Christianity, in that children of parents whom participate in the CULT, are of course prone to rigid acceptance of this way of life.
Children are predisposed to mimicing parents behavior: Smoking, Racisim, Domestic Violence.
I put Christianity in this classification as well. Essentially Pavlovian “dog” learned behavior.
What saved me from the cult, outside of my parents lack of interest, was, interestingly a series of TIME / LIFE books
that happened to be in my house. From those books, at 8 years old, I read and read. I could not believe it:
Dinosaur’s, Evolution, Neanderthals, Homo Erectus, LSB Leakey, the Big Bang. WOW! Me, an 8 year old living in hickville N Florida. Then I got ahold of Carl Sagans “Cosmos”.
In the 3rd, grade (aro 1967-68) I brought one of the Time Life books to class with me, kinda a “show and tell” The one with that CLASSIC chart of human evolution, showing the straight line progression from ape, to hominid, to homo sapien. I thought I would be a “hit”.
LOL – That is until my third grade teacher, Ms. Effie May Thompson, devout Church of Christ rattle snake wrapper,
sent my ass to the principals office where they told my parents to come pick me up for bringing salacious pornographic materials to class.
That had a profound impact on me. From that point on, I began to compare “church” to “science”.
For me the score was Science 100, Church 0. (My parents did manage to take me to church services about 2 times a year, usually around Easter time). Even as a kid I could recognize the bizarre and “command and control” behavior
of the “Assembly of God” pastor and some of the congregants the few times I did go.
Enough of my personal history. I will close to comment on Christians and Donald Trump. Anyone with a brain and who follows politics should understand that Trump got elected and may get elected again by these primary supporters: Racists, Bigots, White Men, the RICH, especially those in the earth resourses destroying industries:
Mining, Petroleum, Power Generation, and of course the Military Industrial complex. But the REAL BASE is, of course, the Christian Nationalist set. The ULTIMATE liars and hypocrites. They claim to love Jesus but they worship at
the alter of that lying, philandering, perverted, cheating, crooked piece of shit extrodinaire. It is mind bending and numbing to watch Christian Nationalist, waving American flags, all the while suporting a person who clearly and by mouth and actions, is determined to shred the constitution and destroy the American Experience for personal gain.
I like to think of 2 Chronicles as Yahweh speaking to the Hebrews. Yahweh was constantly on the asses of the Hebrews for not doing what Yahweh wanted. Sure, Christians appropriated the Hebrew texts and consider themselves to be adopted by God, but it was originally supposed to be Yahweh admonishing his “chosen people”.
I thought of this too ObstacleChick. Makes it easy for some Christians to dismiss it on that basis alone.
Wow Bruce. that passage knocked me out. I agree with you that a strict reading puts the burden on those called by his name. If the world is in need of healing, now we know who to blame. It’s the wicked proud sinful Christians who bear the responsibility. At long last repent you sonsabitches so Jebus can heal our land.
But hey it’s all fictional anyway, right?
A little late to this party—I somehow missed the email with this post.
OC makes a really good point. It begs the question of who “my people” are. If God meant the Hebrews then, as OC points out, it’s easy for Christians to dismiss the verse. On the other hand, does taking it at face value—as Evangelicals claim to do with the Bible—mean that Evangelicals and other Christians aren’t “my people “ and therefore not capable of being saved?
Now that I think of it, the verse was never mentioned or discussed during any sermon or Bible study I experienced as an Evangelical Christian.