The Core Problems We Face

Our country is in trouble.  Though we have made many significant advances, such as in the areas of racial and gender equality, not to mention technology,  I would suggest that the following represent critical reasons for why the United States of America has a worrisome future.

(1) Moral decay. 50 years ago, the top problems in schools were: talking to friends during class, passing notes, chewing gum, cutting in line, running in the halls, being late for class, littering and dress code violations. Today, the top problems in schools are: drug abuse, alcohol abuse, tobacco abuse, theft, assault, verbal and physical abuse toward educators, rape and murder. 50 years ago it was scandalous for Elvis to wiggle his hips on television. Today, there are tons of *commercials* that would have been considered pornographic or extremely violent - not fit for the public airwaves - had they been even considered back then.

(2) A sense of entitlement. We used to be a nation of people that took their freedom seriously and went on the government dole only as a last resort. Today, if people aren't getting their contraceptives covered by their insurance, or by government, people practically revolt in the street. What used to be a temporary safety net is now seen by many as an unalienable right. More people do not pay any taxes, but receive from the government, than pay into the system. We have become a nation of receivers, not of contributors. This sense of entitlement extends to the notion that anyone who has more than us is "greedy" and that we "deserve" some more of what they have (why, exactly, we deserve it is a mystery). So politicians play to this sense of envy and entitlement, and whenever someone points out that the system is unsustainable, they cry "they're trying to take away your... (medicare, social security, welfare, unemployment check....insert entitlement X here)!!!"

(3) Utter, catastrophic, fiscal irresponsibility. It is absolutely stunning how politicians don't think twice about spending billions (and trillions) of dollars without any regard for how we are going to pay for it. Either we just borrow more or print more money, but either way we go deeper and deeper into debt. To satisfy the electorate (which, based on point (2) above, feels *entitled* to that money, and heck, most people now don't pay into the system so it's not an added burden on them), politicians satisfy short-term desires at the expense of long-term wisdom. At this rate we *WILL* crash. It is inescapable. There is no free lunch, yet politicians treat our money as if there is. And when people suggest cutting the budget they are called "draconian" - a classic scare tactic.

(4) Desiring security over freedom. We used to be a nation of freedom, which meant that you are free to make good - or bad - choices. You lived with the consequences of your choices. Today, people don't want freedom if it comes with risk. It is absolutely better for people if they could take every dime that is taken from them and put into FICA and they invest it themselves. Even a basic, completely guaranteed, government bond would give them a better result than Social Security. But people don't want that freedom because it *might* come with risk. When they take out a bad loan and foreclose, they expect the government to bail them out. When they take out humongous student loans to go into fields that really don't pay, and they wonder how they are going to pay those loans back, they want the government to forgive the rest of the loan (hence the cheering when Obama proposed this recently). We prefer to have an incredibly invasive TSA agent probe down our pants because we want to be super safe when we fly. I understand why we want security. But freedom does come with risks. You're a kid and you want to learn how to ride your bike. Well, riding the bike brings about the potential to fall and scrape your knee. But people want to be able to ride their bike without fearing the fall.

(5) Groupism instead of nationalism. We are a nation of groups now, not a unified nation. Everyone has their own ethnic qualifier. We are no longer a melting pot. When my grandfather came here from Italy, he chose to not speak Italian in his house (which is a bummer for me since it meant that I never learned Italian in the home, but oh well). Why? Because he said, this is America, and here they speak English. If I'm going to be an American, I'm going to become part of this culture. Now, people have as their primary identity their cultural heritage, not the nation we live in. Instead of, I'm an AMERICAN, it's, I'm an X-American. There is no unity, only a collection of disparate groups. It's hard to build a nation when the people don't primarily identify with that nation.

(6) The breakdown of the family. The family is the most important building block of any society, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out that if the family goes to pot, the nation will soon follow. I could sit here all day and cite statistics and studies but the bottom line is that most marriages fail, a HUGE number of kids (especially in minority groups) are born out of wedlock, and tons of kids grow up without knowing at least one of their parents. We are redefining marriage, we are watching celebrities glorify having kids out of wedlock, we are promoting a "new normal" as if it is a good thing.  The nuclear family is vital to a flourishing society and we seem hell-bent on destroying it.

We have other issues besides these, of course.  But I see them as the six biggest societal problems we face today.  The solutions are there, but they are unpopular.  As a result, they will probably never happen.  But we cannot get our nation squared away if we are not willing to face the problems.

I would invite feedback as to what other major problems you think we have as a nation.

Christians and Chick-fil-A

The recent firestorm surrounding Chick-fil-A and owner Dan Cathay has got me (and a lot of other people) thinking. Primarily, I'm wondering about the role of Christianity in a non-Christian, secular, or multicultural and multi-religious, society. And what is the role of Christians themselves in such a society?

There are a couple of points that need to be made off the top. First, Christians are called to be Christians, fully. Not "Sunday-Christmas-Easter" Christians. Not "when it's convenient for me" Christians. Fully Christian. This means loving the Lord and taking seriously what He says in His Word (see my post about being a Bible-believing Christian....there can be no other kind), and seeking to live out a life of following Christ. And that needs to happen even when God instructs us to do things that run counter to the culture.

But second, the society we live in is not a Christian society. There may have been some Christian roots to our nation and our founding fathers, but let's be real: they weren't all true believers. But regardless, today, in 2012, this is most definitely not a Christian civilization.

So how are Christians to live in a non-Christian, secular society? How are we to live out our faith in a society that increasingly disdains Christianity?

You know, we're not the only Christians to face such a situation. The earliest believers living throughout the Roman Empire faced something similar. They lived in a very diverse, pagan world. Though there was an Emperor, they still had elected representatives (the vestiges of the Republic remained). There was one overarching civil government throughout the empire, though the empire was divided up into provinces (think: large states). This one governmental system and set of Roman values pervaded the entire empire, and elements of Roman civilization were evident everywhere, and yet the empire itself was very diverse and multicultural. Within the empire you had people from Britain, Gaul, Germania, Turkey, Israel, and even Africa.

If you look at how Christians lived in such a society, it could be summed up in a few phrases. First, they were faithful to the Lord. Even non-Christians in that time noticed that. Here's a quote from Pliny, a Roman historian, regarding the early Christians:

"They were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of food--but food of an ordinary and innocent kind."

And Lucian of Samosata (a Greek satirist) commented, "The Christians . . . worship a man to this day--the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account. . . . [It] was impressed on them by their original lawgiver that they are all brothers, from the moment that they are converted, and deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws."

Notice that?  The Christians met together, worshipped God, and committed themselves to live out the calling to which they had been called.  Other people noticed their faithfulness to God and His teachings.  Oh that Christians today would be so faithful!!

Second, they were eager to spread the Word of God.  Tacitus wrote of Christians, "Nero fastened the guilt . . . on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of . . . Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome."

You see?  The gospel spread at the hands of believers.  Of course Tacitus, who wasn't exactly a fan of Christianity or Christians, called it a "superstition", but he did point out that it grew throughout the empire.  In a pagan, unbelieving world, Christians are to spread the Word.

Third, Christians stood firm on their faith, even in the face of intense persecution.  History records massive persecutions under Nero, Domitian, Trajan, Decius, Valerian, and others.  I have actually been inside some of the catacombs under Rome, and there were some 500,000 Christians buried there, many of whom were put to death for their faith in Christ.  It was an amazing experience, for sure, and it brought home just how committed these people were.  Despite all kinds of pressure from the government and from their society, Christians held firmly to what they believed, being willing to risk it all for the sake of Christ.

Now, despite the similarities, there was (at least) one major difference.  In Rome, Christianity was on the ascendency, rising up from its beginnings and gaining a foothold (and eventually, legal dominance) in the empire.  In the United States, Christianity is on the decline, going from a place of prominence to a place of increasing marginalization.  To Christians in Rome, it was "normal" for the pagan viewpoint to rule the day.  To Christians in the United States, it USED TO BE "normal" for Christian values to rule the day, and any move away from that certainly feels like we as a society are departing from Christianity.  And that makes a big difference.

But still, what if Christians simply lived out the values the Roman believers did?  What if we were simply faithful to Christ, eager to spread the Word, and firm in the face of trials and persecution?  What would that look like?

I think those are the questions we should be asking ourselves in 21st century America.