Overcoming political correctness in our churches.
Pastors and Christians today generally have all but forgotten
God's cultural mandate. The Bible provides God’s positive blueprint
for all areas of life: economics, government, politics, law, history, science, education, sociology, philosophy, business,
and so on. But unlike the pulpits of America’s founding era, many of today’s pastors tend to hyper-focus
solely on an ecclesiastical orientation of Scipture (i.e. evangelism, worship, general morality, our personal walk and relationship
with Christ, etc.). This modern truncated approach to teaching and preaching God's word has had a devastating effect on our
society.
This ecclesiastical
orientation (the church and its spiritual culture) constitutes only about 35% of the Bible’s total content
and application. To assume that the Creator and His word are relevant only to the church is to deny His lordship and
sovereignty over the rest of creation. This truncated view of theology is nothing short of blasphemy.
Without a solidly biblical perspective on things like property rights, self-reliance, free-markets, private charity, and limited
government, Christians will fail to see the good and Godly connection among the various institutions, realms, and disciplines.
As a result, many of today's Christians unsuspectingly think in humanistic and socialistic
categories (see the chart below). A recent Barna poll found that "a dismal 8% of born-again Christians
have a biblical worldview." (Although many experts
believe it is actually less than 2%.)
In
18th Century America, as well as before and well afterwards, a full and proper view of the Bible was taught from
the pulpit. The Bible speaks of all-of-life and all-of-life equally. Sermons, Bible studies, Sunday
School curriculum, and personal devotionals were all dedicated equally and proportionately to each and every individual sphere
and discipline that God has created. Hebrews 5:12-14
teaches that “those who live on milk are still infants, but solid food is for the mature.” In regard
to the chart below, picture the Immature View of the Bible as "infants still on milk,"
in contrast to the Mature Biblical Worldview as "the mature on solid food."
Without a solid biblical worldview and a capacity to interconnect these various
areas or spheres, today's disciples lack discernment and thus the ability to "distinguish good from evil" (see Hebrews 5:14).
Today, pastors generally fail to truly
recognize that the Bible extends both
horizontally and vertically. This is because most seminaries
and church leaders over the last three or four generations have chosen to remain politically neutral in the culture wars for
fear of offending their flocks and rocking the boat for their own projects. As a result of such deliberate omission
of the Bible, as it relates to some of the most important areas of life, we have grown inherently liberal
in our teaching. Such omission of God's truth for the sake of political correctness and personal ambition is nothing more
than a form of deception.
However, it is impossible for Christians to remain neutral
in any area of life, including politics, economics, education, business, and so forth. For each of
these spheres (or areas of life) left unfilled by biblical teaching and truths, a natural
vacuum remains which is unconsciously and automatically filled though
liberal, cultural influences instead. Meanwhile, a truncated
view of the Bible has been perpetually passed down through generations of converts, disciples,
teachers, and pastors. The consequences to our nation and future generations have been catastrophic: "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6).
In the chart below, take notice to the type of
society and overall outcome as a result of each view of reality being
taught (or not being taught):
