The Real Scandal of the Evangelical Mind

This is an excerpt from an article by Carl Trueman. To read the full article click on thee heading below:

WHY DO EVANGELICAL ACADEMICS CRAVE WORLDLY ACCEPTANCE?

I suspect there are a number of reasons for this problem. First, the context of evangelicalism lends itself to just such confusion. Evangelicalism really does not understand what it is. Is it a movement based on an experience (the new birth), or on theological commitments, or on parachurch institutions? Yet here's the rub: The first (experience) will degenerate into mere subjective mysticism if not connected to the second (theological commitments). The second is now highly disputed among evangelicals, who cannot even agree on the answer to Pilate's question, "What is truth?" And the third (parachurch institutions) too often either forms part of the problem of defining the second, or, in the USA in particular, becomes less a ministry and more a vehicle for a cult of personality, vulnerable to the kind of criticism made by Eric Hoffer, who said that every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and ends up as a racket. Evangelicalism is a sorry mess, neither pure nor simple.

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Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

If there has ever been a movie that has provoked me and aroused anxiety and concern it is Ben Stein's Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. Every Christian and every religious person should see this documentary. What is particularly disturbing is that atheists and socialists and communists are now out of the closet and openly declaring that religion is a delusion and a fantasy and should be regulated and done away with. In one clip, the comic Bill Maher openly says that religion is dangerous and should be regulated, presumably by the government. How much more in your face do we need for them to be before we get the message?


This sounds amazingly like some of the things the communists have been saying for decades. I remember in particular in high school in the 1970's we were required to take a class called Americanism Versus Communism. In that class we were told that communism is an atheistic and materialistic regime which believes that religion is an "opiate" of the people. That is, they believe that religion is used by capitalists to drug and delude people into accepting their subservience as the proletariat.


Atheists would have us to believe that religion and Christianity is evil and that wars are always fought over religion. The fact is more wars have been fought over power struggles than religion and materialistic atheism is not without its responsibility for genocide and worse, if we examine the Nazi regime of Hitler and Stalinists of Russia.


What is particularly troubling is the efforts of atheistic scientists to use their power and influence in academic and scientific organizations and publications to suppress any idea of intelligent design or of any intellectual inquiry or research into such ideas from a scientific perspective. There can be no academic freedom if there is no room for all kinds of questions, including intelligent design regarding microbiological evolution, macro evolution and Darwinism.


Astonishingly, socialists and communists are no longer working behind the scenes but now openly attack religion on cable television channels like Show Time and HBO. One has to wonder how long the United States can maintain its moral conscience once the atheists and communists have their way?


It seems to me that there is an open agenda by many in the mass media to attack and undermine religion. The attack comes on many fronts. Pornography is openly pushed for free on the internet so that the morals and inhibitions of young people are undermined more than it has ever been before. In my teenage years the worst was a few suggestive sex scenes in R rated movies. Hardcore porn was illegal in most states and difficult to obtain. These days porn is everywhere.


Another attack against religion is on the political front. Anyone who opposes abortion and homosexual marriage and special rights is "evil" according to the liberal media. So Christians are portrayed as idiots who are deluded and stupid. The really "enlightened" people are "tolerant" of homosexuality and a woman's right to make decisions about her own body; in other words, she has the right to kill her unborn child.


The real message of Ben Stein's moving documentary is that people of faith will be ridiculed and ostracized if they dare to think for themselves. There comes a time when people of faith must either give in and be persecuted or even eradicated by force--including genocide if history teaches us anything--or we must begin to speak out and stand up for faith. If we do not get involved in protecting religious freedom and academic freedom those freedoms may soon be gone forever. Moreover, the Constitution of the United States guarantees us the freedom of speech and the freedom of religion. Those freedoms are quickly evaporating before our very eyes. Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed confronts us with the sad truth that faith in God is being undermined in front of our noses and no one is doing anything about it.


One has to wonder if the political left has any conscience remaining? They seem willing to use every dirty tactic in the book to win the culture war and to undermine traditional family values and to redefine and re-engineer society as a whole. Ben Stein's documentary is a poignant and disturbing expose of the conspiracy to put religion in the closet and to make wickedness, evil and atheism the new moral compass of America. I have to agree with Stein that we need to tear down this wall which suppresses the truth and attempts to force free thought into oblivion. (Romans 1:18-21).