You Can Believe Anything in General, But Nothing in Particular
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Skeptical and sarcastic views toward what other people believe has become the order of the day. But it hides behind a facade of "tolerance" that says we should respect others' beliefs and points of view, while to ourselves we say - "That's a really dumb idea!" The result is that we conclude you can believe anything in general, but nothing in particular. So if you firmly believe in one fixed, settled religious faith, ideology, or philosophy, you will be greeted with rolled eyeballs, sarcasm, skepticism, or outright hostility.
It has thus become "cool" for a person to say that he believes there is no god, no absolute truth, no objective moral standards of right and wrong, of good and evil. But think about that for just a minute: to say - "There is absolutely no absolute, and that's the absolute truth" is an absurdity, a paradox. As the Psalmist wrote - "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.' They are corrupt. They have done abominable works. There is none who does good" (Psalm 14:1). It is foolish to deny the existence of absolutes because such a statement is itself an absolute. And the result of such denial is increasing corruption.
John Locke was a political philosopher in the years leading up to the American Revolution. From A New Lockean Manuscript and the Limits of Religious Toleration we read -
"As more than one critic has pointed out, Locke’s paper-thin description of religion — the holding of beliefs and the performance of rites conducive to eternal life — hardly fits the complex and encompassing character of most actually existing faiths.
"Locke's Letter begins, indeed, not with the separation of church and state, but with an explication of the nature of Christianity that describes it in almost exclusively practical terms. The work likewise closes with an appendix on heresy that considers additions rather than subtractions from the doctrine as heretical. This diatribe against all 'contrivers of symbols, systems, and confessions' is not accidental to Locke's view of toleration. Instead of pushing for toleration between opposed substantive doctrines, this doctrinal minimalism makes the holding of substantive views itself suspect of endangering the tolerant society.
"It goes hand in hand, moreover, with an equally thin view of religious membership. In the Letter, the church is presented as a voluntary society into which no one is born, and one that is concerned alone with right worship as a way to salvation."
This minimalistic view of religious toleration has brought us today to the point of shoving religion into a corner, into a box, into the four walls of a 'religious establishment' building, a church, where people can perform their cultic rituals and from which no ideas or words or practical ministry should escape, contaminating a "tolerant" society. The First Amendment states that Congress shall make no law concerning an establishment of religion [one particular religious faith] or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
But secular humanism has turned this upside-down to mean that the government should remove all religious expression from the public view, limiting religious freedom to only inside the four walls of a church building. The notion that children should be raised as free-range animals, given the "right" to choose whatever they want to believe and however they want to live, while the schools have become indoctrination camps for brainwashing the kids with LGBTQ ideology, is another absurdity.
In another article, Eric Metaxas gives the reason for his new support of conservatism -
"Especially when you get to the issue of religious liberty, that's actually the core. If you really want to know why --, [it’s] because to lose religious liberty in America is not simply to lose rights. - That’s nonsense. It's about losing something so foundational, so central to the republic that you will eventually lose everything. It's like pulling a thread and it's going to unravel the whole thing.
"I really think that Christians have been the canary in this coal mine. They've seen that there's effectively the attempt to impose, to establish a religion. It's a secular humanist religion, but whenever you're talking about ultimate issues, you're talking about things like personhood, you're talking about sexuality, you’re talking about marriage, these are foundational things that get right to the core of people and cultures."
The freedom of religious expression - the ability to express your beliefs in public without being blackballed, fired from your job, or shoved into a corner, a box where you can only mutter your beliefs to others of the same faith, and hindered from passing on your faith to your children - is foundational to all other freedoms because it defines our very personhood, our family, and the future of our culture.
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In a recent speech at the University of Notre Dame, U.S. Attorney General William Barr stated -
"'The imperative of protecting religious freedom was not just a nod in the direction of piety,' Barr said. 'It reflects the framers' belief that religion was indispensable to sustaining our free system of government.'"
"The Attorney General said numerous measures of social decline are rising as religion recedes from public life, citing higher instances of drug addiction, mental illness, and suicide. Those outcomes are not random, but the fruit of a dedicated campaign against orthodox religious belief, Barr added."
"'This is not decay,' Barr said. 'This is organized destruction. Secularists and their allies have marshaled all the forces of mass communication, popular culture, the entertainment industry, and academia in an unremitting assault on religion and traditional values.'"
A diet of sugary and starchy foods provides a breeding ground for harmful bacteria. In the same way, when young people's minds are filled with oversexualized films and social media, this encourages behavior that spreads disease and decreases the future population to the point of demographic winter: the death of our culture. But this is precisely what the secular humanists and socialists want so they can raise up their utopian phoenix out of the ashes.
Jesus quoted the prophet Isaiah: "the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke, 'Lord, who has believed our report? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?' For this cause they couldn't believe, for Isaiah said again, 'He has blinded their eyes and He hardened their heart, lest they should see with their eyes, and perceive with their heart, and would turn, and I would heal them.' Isaiah said these things when he saw His glory, and spoke of Him. Nevertheless even many of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they didn’t confess it, so that they wouldn't be put out of the synagogue, for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God" (John 12:38-43).
Isaiah and Jesus foresaw how people would become hardened against the truth because they fear the skepticism, sarcasm, and ridicule of their peers. But Jesus also held out hope: "I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me may not remain in the darkness. If anyone listens to My sayings, and doesn't believe, I don’t judge him. For I came not to judge the world, but to save the world" (John 12:46-47). Jesus is the Light of the world! He didn't come to judge you, but to save you. Come, receive the Light!
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Christ is among us! He is and ever shall be!
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