OPINION:
A new study from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University has found only 4% of American adults now hold a worldview that is rooted in biblical principles.
That’s the end of American Exceptionalism, right there.
If the foundation of individual liberties upon which this nation is based is the idea that rights come from God, not government, and that the political class is only in place to uphold those already-inherent rights – and if that’s the basic definition of American Exceptionalism, which it is – then the massive drop in numbers of citizens who look to God first, to the Bible first, to Judeo-Christian principles first is a clear warning of the demise of the Constitution, the nation’s systems of laws and order, the very society.
It’s impossible to have God-given rights if God is removed from that equation.
It’s impossible to have God-given rights if the peoples of the nation refuse to look to God first and government second.
As God-given goes, so, too, limits on government; so, too, individual liberties.
“When you put the data in perspective,” said George Barna, the director of research at the center, in a written statement, “the biblical worldview is shuffling toward the edge of the cliff. As things stand today, biblical theism is much closer to extinction in America than it is to influencing the soul of the nation. The current incident of adults with the biblical worldview is the lowest since I began measuring it in the early 1990s.”
But 4%? Four percent? That’s remnant size; that’s getting to the remnant God leaves in the Bible when He’s allowing consequences to take their natural course, but still wants to use the faithful to carry forth His truths.
Still, the dwindling biblical worldview is not exactly a surprise.
Over the past couple decades, public schools have stopped teaching truthful history of America’s greatness, and instead put into the minds of youth – the emerging leaders of the nation – that capitalism is racist, Founding Fathers were racist, and therefore, the governing documents of the country are racist and in dire need of destruction and replacement. Socialism and Marxism and communism have been sold as the New American Order – the preferred method of governing, going forward. Biblical values have been mocked, scorned, tossed to the side of the public stage by secularists and humanists and Democrats who say such have no business outside of church on Sundays.
And all along, Americans have grown more and more fleshly — less and less spiritual.
The LGBTQ agenda that embraces the psychologically deranged has moved mainstream and become normalized. Those who question the insanity – the utter insanity of allowing boys to become girls by changing their pronouns and clothing style; of allowing children to take drugs and undergo surgical procedures to change their sexes; of allowing little kids to put dollar bills into the thongs of dancing men wearing women’s attire – those who question this insanity and more are deemed by the loudest mouths in society to be intolerant, discriminatory, unwelcoming, wrong. Evil has been flipped for good. Good has been flipped for evil.
And now America is losing her religion to a massive degree – which means America is losing her freedoms to a massive degree.
Without biblically knowledgeable citizens who sift all the government and schools and corporate worlds through the standards of Judeo-Christian truths, the standards of behavior – the expectations of behavior – the definitions of good behavior versus bad behavior – change.
“Perhaps the ugliness and heavy-handedness of cancel culture has stimulated greater interest in the potential benefits of adopting a worldview based on love and service in shaping both our culture and individual lives,” Barna said.
That’s a nice way of saying nothing will change until rock bottom is hit.
The question is: Will there be an America left to save during this rock bottom wake-up call?
It’s hard to imagine there would be. There comes a time when it’s too late to go back. Sadly, once government seizes freedoms, once Big Government becomes the norm and the expected and finally the desired, it’s rare that individual rights remain intact. It’s rare to win back the freedoms without first engaging in some sort of violent revolutionary fight.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
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