It is no surprise, then, that people whose belief systems are a muddle of Casey’s sweet-mystery-of-life passage and Modern Family bridle at the strict sexual morality of the monotheistic religions. This is exacerbated by traditional Christianity’s refusal either to conform to the spirit of the age or to go away and be quiet. The erosion of the state’s role in upholding public morality both foreshadowed and led to the cultural rejection of religion’s right to judge the morality or immorality of certain acts.
Evangelicals still loudly proclaim that one should “wait until marriage,” even if that command is largely honored in the breach. The Catholic Church has not relaxed its prohibition on contraception, even if many of its adherents ignore its teaching or even loudly oppose it. Both Evangelicals and Catholics (and those members of mainline churches who hold to traditionalist norms) grapple with the culture on multiple fronts””praying outside abortion clinics, attending the March for Life, objecting to FDA approval of abortifacients, decrying pornography, etc. In short, they have remained a thorn in the side of an ever-more-permissive culture for over forty years. (Orthodox Christianity, Orthodox Judaism, and Islam also adhere to strict moral norms regarding sexual behavior, but attract less attention because of their status as minority religions.)
This cultural attitude has led to religious liberty’s current embattled position.
Carissa Mulder is right. This is no alarmist rant. Pay attention to this Cassandra. The implications are very far-reaching.
We have to start preparing our congregations to face the coming persecution. We may not see it really break out until I’m dead and gone, but I’m virtually certain that my grandchildren will face it. The millenium and a half marriage of Christianity and European culture has resulted in an uneasy separation, and the official divorce is looming in the near future. It will be ugly, very ugly.
David Handy+
The good thing is this will cause the apostate mainline churches to die even more quickly (be assimilated by the non-Christian culture which is almost complete at this point in any event), but the real church of Jesus Christ will again begin to flourish, as it always does under persecution.
The persecution is starting. It’s “soft” persecution now, but people are being fined and their livelihoods threatened and it will get worse.