Posted on 05/25/2019 3:56:11 AM PDT by Kaslin
There are many fine pastors in America. They are devoted shepherds. They are faithful teachers of the Word. They care for their flocks. And when necessary, they sound the alarm.
For each of them, I am thankful.
Some of them are dear friends and co-workers, and many of them have sacrificed much for God’s work and God’s people.
But there are all too many others who do not see the handwriting on the wall. They seem willfully ignorant of the “signs of the times.”
For them and, even more, for their congregations, I am deeply concerned.
According to a recent Barna survey, “a plurality of the general population believes freedom of religion in the U.S. is worse than it was 10 years ago.”
In contrast, during that same time period, “the proportion of Protestant pastors who fear religious liberties may be further restricted in the future has actually dropped.”
Dropped? Seriously?
At a time when our religious liberties are under attack from every corner – from our children’s schools to our places of business and from the internet to the courts – how can it be that many Protestant pastors are less concerned now than before?
According to Barna, “In the 2014 survey of all Christian and non-Christian clergy, over half of Protestant pastors (55 percent) admitted they were very concerned that religious freedom will become more restricted in the next five years; this percentage fell to below half (49 percent) in the 2015 / 2016 study and to one-third (34 percent) in 2017.”
Indeed, “If signs of concern waned during these years, it’s not because emphasis on religious freedom was any less prominent in national news. In 2015, in particular, there were several high-profile religious liberty stories, including the controversial passage (and amendment) of the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which proponents claimed was intended to restrict government’s ability to infringe on religious rights; the landmark ruling in Obergefell vs. Hodges in the Supreme Court, granting marriage rights to same-sex couples; and threats to repeal the accreditation of Gordon College for their statement of faith on marriage as limited to a man and a woman. Considering these events in light of a perceived drop in Protestant pastors’ concerns about religious freedom, there is perhaps less of a ‘headline sensitivity’ than one might expect.”
Could it be that these pastors feel more confidence because of the positive steps the Trump administration has taken to reinforce our religious liberties?
That is certainly possible, and the president has done a lot for the cause of religious liberty, from his war against the Johnson Amendment to his many fine federal court appointees. And he has used his bully pulpit to speak up for our freedoms.
At the same time, it would be foolish for us to think that the national tide had somehow turned and that our religious liberties were not under serious and real attack. And what happens if a radical, leftist Democrat becomes our next president? What will things look like then?
In my 2011 book, A Queer Thing Happened to America, I devoted one whole chapter to the assault on our freedoms, noting, “The really frightening thing is that it would be easy to write an entire book focusing on the subject matter of this chapter alone, and the book could be much longer than this present book – and this is one long book!” (For the record, the book was 700 pages long with 1,500 endnotes. The chapter in question was more than 17,000 words long.)
That was back in 2011, and even then, I could list numerous, full-length books documenting this very real assault on our most fundamental freedoms – namely, our freedoms of speech, conscience, and religion.
For example, in 2003, David Limbaugh wrote, Persecution: How Liberals Are Waging War Against Christianity.
That same year Alan Sears and Craig Osten wrote, The Homosexual Agenda: Exposing the Principal Threat to Religious Freedom Today.
In 2009, Donald Wildom wrote, Speechless: Silencing the Christians.
Also in 2009, Janet Foler wrote, The Criminalization of Christianity: Read This Book Before It Becomes Illegal!
In 2010, Tammy Bruce wrote, The New Thought Police: Inside the Left's Assault on Free Speech and Free Minds.
This is just a representative sampling, and some of these books are more than 15 years old.
In fact, reading their content only underscores the urgency of the hour we live in today. In many ways, the warnings were quite prescient – and remember: these were written before social media giants like Google and Facebook had fully shown their hands.
Today, you need a very large, detailed scorecard to keep track of the latest assaults on our religious liberties, to the point that some major organizations (such as the ADL or Liberty Counsel or the FRC) sound out daily updates.
That’s why this Barna survey should be of special concern. Our leaders need to wake up and speak up – while they still have the chance.
And to every congregant who would say, “My pastor is not sounding the alarm or giving us constructive steps to take,” I offer you this council.
First, pray for them, don’t gossip about them. They have a lot on their plate and face many unique challenges.
Second, send them a note and say, “Pastor, we love you and are praying for you and we want you to raise your voice. On behalf of our families – especially our children and our grandchildren – please speak up and speak out.”
Then, remind them of the oft-quoted words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it leaves to its children.”
Therein hints at the true problem, the massive amount of Protestant pastors who are either flaming or closet liberals. Their true religion is liberalism. And a principal tenant of liberalism is the stifling of Christian religious freedom as a precursor to that religion's elimination.
That is part of the problem, the other issue is that pastors for the most part are concerned with attendance numbers and the church board is concerned with the tithe. How many pastors have the fire and conviction of Billy Sunday? How many are willing to stand up and call abortion murder and interfaith dialogues as tools of the devil?
That question is rhetorical because most pastors in America are indeed asleep, hence why the American electorate votes the way it does, why the nation is in the mess and why it it most certainly headed towards judgment.
I asked him if he thought God's Word was timeless and, thus, the Church might want to consider staying with the Word instead of the times.
He accused me (nicely) of perhaps being a Southern Baptist instead of a Methodist.
I took it as a compliment.
The seeming contradiction about the sense of where so called “religious liberties” are going could be due to a discovery that Christ is quite capable of “preparing a table for us in the presence of our enemies.”
Nominal Christianity was able to coast on culture during America’s more halcyon years. Living by bible ideals was seen as no strange thing, even by those who never trusted in Christ for salvation, or only had weak faith.
I think we need to take a “joy in the Lord” view. We are not yet even at the grade of tribulation warned for the end of the church age. In the USA, “Bake the cake” — when it occurs, and it is still rare, and there is hopeful news on the court front even for this — isn’t “Bow to Allah or be beheaded.”
I believe there is at least one saving grace left in modern secular America and that is the dear place it had in its freedom loving heart for counterculture movements, of which back-to-the-bible Christianity is manifestly one today, and is the reason why there is more sympathy for decriminalizing marijuana today. Christendom might feel weird about sitting side by side with marijuana, and yet both are about the mind. I made some telling points on a Facebook thread about a county in Florida that wanted to “ban reparative therapy.” Surprisingly easily, I mentioned that this is part of a counterculture movement, which they should be able to remember many of, and said that while county social services could choose not to provide that kind of mental health care, they shouldn’t be the dog in everybody else’s manger either. It seemed to be reasonably received.
Christianity is something that is not the world. If we can give a reason, with meekness and respect, for the hope within us, we’ll get further, and increase our yeehaw to bummer ratio.
The left has invaded the church and is in far too many churches running things, and not just these progressive churches, but even lots of churches that state they are solid Word churches, Evangelical churches.
I have heard young people teens to 30’s state homosexuality is no longer a sin because the culture has changed. Abortion is acceptable when a women really needs one (whatever that means). Then the pro illegal alien...no wall..take millions of refugees...give them all the benefits they need and the vote, with no willingness to help the poor who were born here.
As for Pastors and other church leaders, any of them that love money, and many do, are not Jesus leaders imo. Same for those who won’t preach and teach on certain topics because they fear govt and losing money...tax status or whatever...false...goats...wolves..heathen.
Then those that only real interest is the power of God, beware and don’t be part of that.
Finally any so called Christian who cares not for the least of these, Jesus casts them into hell so they are not the Lord’s sheep and never were.
The bible does warn “do not become many teachers, for they will incur a stricter judgment.”
A mist in the pulpit is a fog in the pew.
A pastor doesn’t even need to be all, or even mostly hellfire and brimstone to ignite a devotion to the Lord. Did God save us merely to be our fire insurance plan? Is not the joy of the Lord our strength? We receive from the Lord with gladness, then with equal gladness give back to the Lord in a transformed life.
It is not my intent to inject race into this discussion. But I never cease to be amazed at the number of black pastors that appear to be die-hard Democrats . How can this be when the Democrats are, first and foremost, the party of abortion. A much higher percentage of black babies are being murdered than white babies yet the black pastors choose to ignore the genocide.
I hear you and thanks. That said, we have to be aware of all that is going on. A spiritual war being played out in real life. There really are people in our society that will do anything to harm Christians and the Church. They send “agents” in to “report back” what the pastor and others say from the pulpit, especially. They pretend to patronize businesses to harass Christians. Pastors need to point out these practices and help their flock defend themselves but too many are afraid of the tax man. So they follow their congregations in white flight and give sermons that could have been given in the 50s or 40s. The church needs guidance for today.
Some might just like to “coast along” in a comfortable life, or want the fame. They know a form of religion, but are denying the power thereof.
I don’t know why God allowed so many of them that option, while I, a layman, have been through the wringer over and over. But my life, and thus my mission on earth, isn’t completed yet.
God has answers for these issues and far more too.
To be ready for tests and trials is important, believing to the heart the promises that Christ gives with respect to those tests and trials. So many Christians bomb out early in the face of one, seething or ranting or moping when they should have been embracing the Spirit of God and praying and hoping (in the bible sense). Any encounter with a human “enemy” is also the chance to witness, which brings God personally into the picture. Is God a theory or is God real? A real God wants to hear the latter conviction from those who are His.
This is the precise travesty in the Christian church in America. It is deeply sexualized. Perversity in its many and rabid forms has engulfed the hierarchies of every denomination.
Especially, the mainline protestant and catholic church has been all but swallowed up by the LGBT plague. Their ranks are purged by institutional fiat of all pastors who would stand against this immorality.
Their is no outcry against the diminution of religion by the religious leadership because they are the enemy. The battle, if it ever existed, for the soul of the institution of the church is irrevocably lost. What remains is for the remnant who still adhere to Biblical teachings to build new institutions purified from the center.
The body of Christ will prevail. Nothing can stand against it. But the worldly trappings of Christianity must be demolished much as the temple in Jerusalem, once cursed by Christ, such that one stone was not left standing upon another.
There is a great groundswell coming from the meek and humble of the earth and it is rising against the fat and evil of every nation. The demons of globalism, of promiscuity, of domination, of greed, of hatred, of elitism are under assault by the power and authority of Christ through His people. This great war against evil is upon us. Those who take sides with evil will be destroyed.
The cry is going out, “Who will you serve, God or man? Choose wisely. Your very soul is at stake.”
A serious affirmation of the attributes of Christ is needed. God has, if the witness of a lot of churches is to be believed, faded genteelly into a human theory. And a God who is a human theory is subject to infinite revisions — not mere misunderstandings, but actual revisions.
Every church should be pressed for evidence that God is “living” there — not just a rumor.
Excellent post and analysis. I fully concur with you.
The Lord said that the world will be as in the days of Noah when the end of the age occurs. Yes we should have joy in the Lord but be a watchman on the wall. Be ready. Don’t be deceived. There will be many that will claim to be Him or followers of Him. He will return like a thief in the night. And when the end occurs,which could happen tomorrow or a hundred years from now,it will be glorious. No need to be afraid.
While this is DEFINITELY true, and we are definitely on a downslide for religious liberties in the west, I actually see the sleepiness of pastors as a more profound issue even than this article. In the main, both liberal pastors AND conservative ones see the same vision and goals... ie, transformation of our social structure into one that favors the political goals, lib of godless socialism and destruction of traditional values... while conservatives seem to bang on restoring Christians to activist, and even the renewal talk is focused on a kind of return to the “good ole days” when social norms favored the good guys.
Frankly, this is idolatry no less than the left. I believe that until the church at large is willing to say “even if it mean tremendous suffering for us, the only thing I want is to see the power of God renew your people like the kind of revivals experienced in the Great Awakening, the Reformation, the Korean and Ugandan revivals etc etc” then we only want “God” for the goodies He will give.
Political and social transformations are “happy accidents” that are the result, not the goal, of God visiting his people.
The sleepiness of bible believing pastors is (so I believe) the unwillingness to tell their congregation that we are in an apostate age, and we should expect to suffer for the faith if things do not change, AND THAT THIS IS THE NORM FOR GOD’S PEOPLE. It is, of course to be feared (no one but an idiot invites suffereing), but it is not the end, and in fact may be the engine for a renewal and revival we have never thought about.
In the final analysis, God doesn’t care much about “the United States” nor whether it survives. He cares about His people, but we make a big mistake in equating the two. Liberty, freedom, and absence of want are wonderful, but they aren’t the end goal here, and desperate politicization of the gospel to keep them is a big mistake.
good article
Well written..as are most all these posts.
We have The Holy Spirit to convict us with every thought, and our decision can be only good or evil. God or Satan. Heaven or Hell. Worshiping the triune God forever or working for Satan forever.
Our African Methodist bishops helped hold Wesley disciplines in the Special General Conference- that AND those of us who fasted and prayed for Jesus to rule, as He will in the end. Now the work begins. Our African bishops (the two I have met) are so filled with The Holy Spirit that He oozes from them! They need to come here and be missionaries to us!! I was and am prepared to leave this congregation if they do not follow biblical teachings and get the LGBTQ, pastors and bishops who have and do violate the Book of Discipline get their due punishment and call sin a sin.
When Satan attacks, I pray in the name of Jesus for him to get behind me and for me to see just what God has in mind as his thoughts are so much higher than mine.
God Bless America! May we be Your shining light soon!
Lutheran (EL C S*A) Ping!
* as of August 19, AD 2009, a liberal protestant SECT, not part of the holy, catholic and apostolic CHURCH.
Christ is Risen!
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