George Washington And Christianity

Mary Thompson, a research historian at Mount Vernon:

Christ Leaving For Other Lands

An early view of America:

"I am credibly informed, that multitudes of England, and especially worthy preachers, and silenced preachers of London, are gone to New England; and I know one learned holy preacher, who hath written against the Arminians, who is gone thither. Our Blessed Lord Jesus, who cannot get leave to sleep with His spouse in this land, is going to seek an inn where He will be better entertained….Christ is putting on His clothes, and making Him, like an ill-handled stranger, to go to other lands….There is a cloud gathering and a storm coming. This land shall be turned upside down; and if ever the Lord spake to me (think on it), Christ's bride will be glad of a hole to hide her head in, and the dragon may so prevail as to chase the woman and her man-child over sea." (Samuel Rutherford, Letters Of Samuel Rutherford [Carlisle, Pennsylvania: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2012], 56, 121-22)

The 6%

George Barna teamed up with the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University and conducted 30-minute long interviews with 2,000 people designed to discover what worldview they profess to hold, as well as what worldview they actually end up living in their lives (link to study here). It should not be much of a surprise that they found 88% of Americans “embrace an impure, unrecognizable worldview that blends ideas from these multiple perspectives.” In fact, “Biblical Theism” only scored a whopping 6% in the survey...but that still managed to get the majority out of the worldviews presented.

Those worldviews are:

• Biblical Theism (6%)
• Secular Humanism (2%)
• Moral Therapeutic Deism (1%)
• Postmodernism (1%)
• Nihilism (1%)
• Eastern Mysticism/New Age (< 1%)
• Marxism/Critical Race Theory (<1%)

This study shows one of the problems with trying to pigeonhole people into one of these worldviews. The vast majority of people are Syncretists, wherein they grab a mishmash of things they like from various worldviews and smash them all together. Barna even explicitly labels them as such in his own results.

Of even greater concern than just the fact that only 6% of Americans can be considered Biblical Theists is the fact that when you take the numbers of characteristics that match “a moderately high number of beliefs or behaviors that meet various worldview specifications, but not quite enough to qualify as being a true adherent of that worldview” then the highest scoring trend in the US is those who hold to Moralistic Therapeutic Deism at 38%. Biblical Theists are in second place at 31%. This means that not only are 94% of Americans not Biblical Theists, but 69% of them aren't even close to being Biblical Theists.

It would be easy to say that syncretism isn't that bad. There's quite a bit of overlap between various views that people hold to, and besides Exodus 20:3 just says not to have another god before Yahweh, not to not have any other gods at all.

Of course the command in Exodus 20:3, “You shall have no other gods before me”, does not mean “Yahweh must be first on the list, but the other gods are okay after that.” “Before me” has a different understanding in older English, meaning “in the presence of”. For example, “I am going to be presented before the king.” Thus, the passage in Exodus carries that connotation, as in: “When you are present before me, you shall have no other gods.”

Still, I gather most readers here already know that. What may be a bit less obvious is the fact that when Israel committed most of her sins against God, such as those that led up eventually to the Babylonian captivity, Israel never really turned her back completely on God. That is, they didn't cease to offer sacrifices to Yahweh in order to add sacrifices to Baal. They simply sacrificed to both. Elijah points this out in 1 Kings 18:21, for example, asking the people of Israel, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.”

More could be mentioned, but I believe the point is made for the purposes of this post. Namely, the sin that caused the downfall of Israel was the very sin of syncretism that currently plagues the United States. God never made a covenant with the United States, even though He has made a covenant with His Church. How do you think a post-Christian American society will fare in the grand scheme of history?

Why the 4th of July should matter

Flattered To Death

As good as things like capitalism and democracy are, they come with some downsides. One of those is that we're often flattered by people who want our money, our vote, or both. We're surrounded by it. We swim in an ocean of it. And since this is a presidential election year in the United States, the situation is especially bad. We hear a lot about how the problem is with corrupt leaders in Washington (and wherever else), how good the American people are, what hard workers they are, how they deserve this and deserve that, are entitled to this and entitled to that, etc.

It would be simplistic to say that all of this flattery goes to people's heads. But some of it does. And that's added on top of all of the teaching of self-esteem in schools, in books, on television, and elsewhere, all of the popular sayings of a similar nature ("don't let anybody judge you", "don't let anybody put you down", "be yourself", "follow your heart", "you deserve a break today", "the customer is always right"), and so on.

For a partial antidote to all of this, see here. We should ask what we're doing to make the problem worse. Do we accept and repeat claims that most Americans are political conservatives or that most are traditional Christians, for example, despite the lack of evidence for such conclusions and the evidence to the contrary? Do we repeat common false notions of how Americans are such good people, but that a small group of political leaders (or the media, academia, Hollywood, etc.) are holding them back and bringing about most of our problems? How much of your view of America is based on wishful thinking or false notions you've accepted without subjecting them to much analysis?

Many years ago, I heard Alistair Begg tell a story from his childhood on his radio program. Listen at 17:18 here. A worker in a candy shop, apparently after hearing somebody compliment Begg about something, told him, "Sonny, flattery is like perfume. Sniff it. Don't swallow it."

A Caution About Ben Shapiro's New PragerU Video And Book

You can view the video here. It centers around the Athens/Jerusalem distinction made by Tertullian. I haven't read Shapiro's book, though I did look up his citation of Tertullian there and read the surrounding context. I can't evaluate his book as a whole, but the video is misleading, as is the portion of the book I read. Shapiro does a lot of good work, and I suspect the book as a whole has a lot of good qualities. But the video is problematic, and what little I've seen of the book raises some concerns about it.

I wrote an article several years ago about misrepresentations of Tertullian's comments on Athens and Jerusalem and another passage in Tertullian that's often misrepresented. Go here to find an index of responses to many other misconceptions about the church fathers, including other ones about the supposed intellectual negligence of the early Christians. And here's an article I wrote about the intellectual nature of Christianity and the importance of apologetics.

Conservatives Misdiagnosing America's Problems

Kevin Williamson recently wrote an article for National Review that's rightly critical of Donald Trump on some points, but also repeats a common false sentiment. It's an idea that's popular in conservative American political circles and popular in a lot of other contexts, even though it's so false and so destructive:

We have only so much time and only so much available in the way of neural resources to throw back at all the problems life throws at us. Earning a living eats up a bunch of the ordinary person’s time-and-brainpower budget, while seeing to children and family, managing a household, maintaining friendships and social obligations, etc., demands most of what’s left — or, for many busy people, more. I’d like to learn French and, if I dedicated a couple of hours a day to it, I could make some real progress in a year or two, I’m sure. But if I take into consideration all the other things I might do with that one or two hours a day, learning French ends up not making the cut. (So far.) That doesn’t mean that I lack the capacity to learn a Romance language or that I hold the works of François Rabelais in low regard. My ongoing ignorance of the French language is rational — there are other uses of my time and resources that better serve my overall ends in life….

Imagine you are a 35-year-old mother or father: If you had spent two hours a day for the past ten years reading up on the details of federal fiscal policy instead of investing that time in your children, would you or your family be happier or better off? Unlikely….

The fact that most people who don’t make their living thinking about politics tend not to think very much or very carefully about politics does not mean that they are not interested in politics or do not care about it. Far from it.

We know how Americans spend their time. The subject has been studied by a lot of people from a lot of different angles. Take, for instance, the Department of Labor's annual research on the topic. See our posts under the Time Management label for other relevant material.

Given that about three-quarters of Americans can't name the three branches of government, nearly half can't name the current vice president, most can't name the four gospels, etc., how busy would they have to be with their jobs, parenting, and so on to explain that level of ignorance? Are they that busy with activities like the ones Williamson refers to? No. They spend large amounts of time on trivial television programs and movies, sports, unnecessary housework and yardwork, reading trivial books, etc. I frequently hear from people, grown adults, who say that they either don't want to retire or want to leave retirement in order to return to their jobs, because there isn't enough to do in retirement. It bores them. Apparently, activities like studying theology, evangelism, apologetics, missions, serving in the local church, prayer, politics, being involved in moral movements in our culture, etc. aren't interesting enough. If they can't find enough trivial activities to fill their time up with - watching trivial television programs, following sports, playing video games, sewing, knitting, cooking, doing trivial things with friends and relatives, and so on - then they want a trivial career to help fill up the time.

Then there's the issue of multitasking. If Americans are as busy with activities like working a job and parenting as people like Williamson suggest (they're not), then why don't they acquire more knowledge of subjects like religion and politics through listening to the Bible while driving their car, listening to audio files while doing housework, etc.? People frequently have earbuds on while working their job, while doing yardwork, and in other contexts. What are they listening to? More trivialities, for the most part. Trivial and vulgar music. Humor. Sporting events. That kind of thing. They could be spending that time on matters like theology, apologetics, and politics. They don't want to.

We're a nation with desperately false priorities and horrible time management. We need to be more honest about that. If we're not even diagnosing the problem rightly, how likely are we to solve the problem?

Is Christianity dying in America?

http://thefederalist.com/2018/01/22/new-harvard-research-says-u-s-christianity-not-shrinking-growing-stronger/

The Significance Of George Whitefield

Thomas Kidd published a biography of George Whitefield last year. Albert Mohler recently had a good interview with Kidd. I recommend listening to it, and I recommend the book.

Pearls of wisdom

"Random Thoughts" by Thomas Sowell.

Waving the flag

Some leftwing Americans refuse to celebrate Independence Day because they think America stands for oppression. Some Americans on the religious right refuse to celebrate Independence Day because they think America stands for abortion, SSM, &c. Ironically, these are mirror images of each other. 

Although I often defend my country against knee-jerk anti-American sentiment, I've never been much of a flag-waver. That just isn't my thing.

However, I'd like to point out that to say America is too evil to celebrate, or the flag is a symbol of oppression, or whatever, is terribly simplistic. 

"America" is an abstraction. What is America? American is many things. 

i) America is the land. Consider the national parks as a sample. 

ii) America is a history. There's pre-Colonial America. There's Colonial America. The America of William Bradford, Cotton Mather, and Jonathan Edwards.

There's the westward expansion. There's the history of your grandparents. And your parents. There's the period you were born into. Or when you came of age. The 20s, 40s, 50s, 60s. 

iii) America is a patchwork of distinctive regions, viz. New England, the Mid-Atlantic, the Midwest, the upper South, the Deep South, the Gulf Coast, the Mountain States, the Pacific. These combine distinct geographies with distinct histories. 

iv) There's a patchwork of ethnicities.

v) There's a patchwork of religions.

vi) There's American culture, viz. architecture, music, sports, classic cars. 

vii) There's famous American cities, viz. New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Chicago, Boston, Charleston, Seattle, San Diego, Savanna, Saint Augustine, Nashville, Albuquerque, Flagstaff, Philadelphia, Little Havana, &c. 

viii) There's small-town America, where everyone knows everyone else.

ix) There's the idea (or ideal) of America. That can be a religious idea ("a city on a hill"). That can be a political idea (The Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights).

x) There's the American mythos. The idea of America in novels, viz., The Last of the Mohicans, The Scarlett Letter, The Red Badge of Courage, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, The Great Gatsby, Invisible Man, The Martian Chronicles, The Moviegoer.

There's the idea of American in movies, viz. the Western, film noire.

To the degree that Americans act on the mythos, that can become a reality. There's a circular dynamic.

I'm not making a statement for or against patriotism. I'm just pointing out that "America" stands for so many different things. Different things to different people. You can't really generalize. 

American character

Independence Day News of the World: New World Record for Eating Hot Dogs; Meanwhile, “Military Crackdown in Egypt”

Joey Chestnut eats 69 hot dogs, sets new world record:



ESPN commentator Bob Ley tweeted this:

America, the world is watching you! Meanwhile in Egypt:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324399404578586002194558298.html

The Perfect Storm for America's Death

"Barack Obama, as did Mussolini, Lenin, Mao and Hitler before him, has the ability to visibly remain above the fray, appear as the champion of the people and manipulate the emotions of an ill-educated populace.  In the case of Obama he has the further benefit of being able to exploit the racial guilt embedded in the American society."

www.americanthinker.com/2013/04/why_the_united_states_is_a_dying_country.html