God is the issue. If I know how you see God, I can predict how you feel about same-sex marriage, abortion, justice and even many economic issues. I can also predict how you will vote.
Baylor University professor Christopher Bader summed up a landmark 2006 study conducted by the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion this way: “You learn more about people’s moral and political behavior if you know their image of God than by almost any other measure.” The study revealed a clear correlation between how Americans view God and how they view economics, morality, justice and politics. Americans who see God as personal generally have higher moral standards and are less reliant on government.
If that is true, then culture transformation must start at the most fundamental level — our view God. Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, alluded to this connection. She wrote, “Birth control appeals to the advanced radical because it is calculated to undermine the authority of the Christian churches.” This, of course, is also the primary reason that groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union have obsessed over stripping God from public education and the public square. They recognize that in order to reshape culture you must fundamentally alter the way people see God.
In 1776, when the United States of America was founded, the average American in the course of a lifetime heard more than 3,000 sermons — addressing their accountability to God and their resultant responsibility for their fellow man. The core belief driving this perspective was that God is the sovereign king of creation and therefore the chief purpose of mankind is to glorify God. Almost all sects of Christianity and Judaism espoused this in one form or another.
Because of this view of God, the free market worked well for America. When my neighbor’s barn burned down, I pitched in to help rebuild his barn. When my neighbor fell ill during the harvest, I was obligated before God to help him bring in the harvest. My accountability to God for my neighbor dictated my civic duty to help make sure no one was left behind. This is the same dynamic that animated the abolitionist movement — the core belief that I am to glorify God with my life by serving my neighbor, especially those at the bottom.
Today, this view has been savaged by the theology of tolerance. The reigning belief now permeating most branches of Christianity and Judaism in America is, “God wants me to be happy.”
Notre Dame sociologist Christian Smith labels this moralistic therapeutic deism. His insightful book “Soul Searching” explores how younger Americans see God’s primary purpose for existing as ensuring their happiness. They see God as a benevolent Santa Claus in the sky. They have demoted the Creator from king to cheerleader.
This dynamic propelled a tectonic shift away from embracing “our God-given rights” and “our God-given freedoms” to demanding “my rights” and “my freedoms.” God became irrelevant to the conversation, just as He is in public education today. Narcissism is now not only accepted, but also embraced as a good. Tolerance has supplanted love as the cultural standard for moral outrage. “Don’t judge me” has replaced “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
This phenomenon has hijacked many Christian pulpits as well. When pastors expound, “It makes God happy when you are happy,” we know the cancer has fully metastasized. When Christian organizations embrace self-indulgent behavior to achieve “unity,” we know man has deposed God as the ultimate arbiter of the good. Moralistic therapeutic deism twists the starting point 180 degrees from God to Me. It therefore follows that anything that makes me happy must be good.
This also reveals our true problem as a nation. The ACLU and Mikey Weinstein are not the problem. Planned Parenthood is not the problem. The church is the problem. We have forgotten who God is — and it shows.
Jesus said we should love God and love our neighbor, but He never tolerated self-indulgent behavior. He recognized for what it was. Then He forgave it and empowered the person in front of him to change. As He said, “Your sins are forgiven. Go and sin no more.”
Reshaping culture requires transforming the way the individuals within society see God — and this process must begin in the church. Anything less means continuing to play whack-a-mole with the cultural symptoms. Failing to address the core issue ultimately means conceding all other societal ills as well. God really is the issue.
The only question that remains is whether or not we will make God the issue.
• Brad Bright is the youngest son of Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ. He is the author of “God is the Issue,” a book to help Christians move from defense to offense, co-opting any cultural symptom.
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