The secularization of our culture

An irate caller recently took a moderator to task for even suggesting something Christian in the public square. What nerve, how dare anyone put forward anything from the religious realm as a valid idea in the “real world.” R.C. Sproul, John Gerstner and Arthur Lindsley have accurately captured the secular attitude toward Christianity: “No martyr’s blood is shed in the secular west. So long as the church knows her place and remains quietly at peace on her modern reservation. Let the babes pray and sing and read their Bibles, continuing steadfastly in their intellectual retardation; the church’s extinction will not come by sword or pillory, but by the quiet death of irrelevance. But let the church step off the reservation, let her penetrate once more the culture of the day and the … face of secularism will change from a benign smile to a savage snarl.”

If knowledge is power then those who claim to only deal with “objective” knowledge will be able to dictate the affairs of the day and marginalize and silence groups who are judged to rely only on “blind faith and private opinion.” This will lead to an increasing secularization of society. Secular wants God out. And as G. K. Chesterton lamented, “Once people stop believing in God, the problem is not that they will believe nothing; rather, the problem is that they will believe anything.”