Rss

  • youtube

The American Church – 1 – Love letters to my family

Posted by :admin On : September 4, 2015
1

Category: American Church, Archives, Truth

Following the feast of the Passover the night Jesus was betrayed, He spoke to his disciples of a new commandment.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another. [John 13:34-35. RSV]

Clearly, Jesus intends for there to be a special love between all true Christians by which is meant everyone in the world who has been born again and walks in the historic biblical faith regardless of denomination or fellowship. This special love binds the church in oneness or unity as expressed by Christ when he prayed for the church.

I do not pray for these only (the disciples), but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them, and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them even as thou hast loved me. [John 17:20-23. RSV]

We Christians haven’t done a very good job of becoming “perfectly one” before a watching world, especially when differences arise within the church. But differences will always occur within the body and must be resolved. It is how those differences are addressed that determines our witness before the world. If there is a lack of true love one for another, those differences will lead to great strife, turmoil, and bitterness. To achieve God’s standard of oneness requires Christians to simultaneously practice God’s holiness and God’s love. God is holy and God is love. Love without holiness is compromise. Holiness without love leads to harshness, strife, and discord.[1]

So how does the church and individual Christians do a better job of addressing their differences before a watching world? Francis Schaeffer believes that we must obey the Bible equally in doctrine and the way we live in all facets of life.

But if we truly believe this, then something must be considered. Truth carries with it confrontation. Truth demands confrontation; loving confrontation, but confrontation nevertheless. If our reflex action is always accommodation regardless of the centrality of the truth involved, there is something wrong.[2] [emphasis in original]

I have titled the first chapter on the American evangelical church as “Love letters to my family.” They are love letters which I write with a grieving heart. I love the evangelical church and all of my born-again brothers and sisters in Christ. But today’s evangelical church is not simultaneously practicing God’s holiness and God’s love, and we are at a time of confrontation. There are many godly men and women who are far superior to this author in biblical knowledge, Christian love, and spiritual maturity but who also believe it is a time to confront the spirit of the world that has invaded the church.

In the first part of this book we shall briefly survey the history of the church since its inception two thousand years ago. Understanding the central themes, successes, and failures in its history is important and will give insight and perspective to the issues faced by today’s Christian church. More importantly, we shall extensively examine the infiltration of the modern church by the spirit of the world which has led to its demise as a moral force necessary to stem the decline of American culture.

The spirit of the world

Over the course of its history, the church has suffered attack from within (theological compromise) and without (cultural compromise), but the principal thrust of both attacks can be described as nothing less than the diminution and final abandonment of biblical truth. As will be seen in the upcoming chapters, this diminution and abandonment of truth has occurred because the church has failed to recognize and resist the spirit of the world which has invaded the church.

To recognize the spirit of the world is to know that it is the complete antithesis of the nature and character of God. Where God is truth, it is a lie. Where God is just, it is injustice. Where God is love, it is hate. Where Godliness means life, it leads to death. Where God is goodness and mercy, it is sin and cruelty. The spirit of the world is Satan’s chameleon—always refining its outward allure to match the demands of a culture but remains unchangeably corrupt within. The spirit of the world has plagued mankind since Satan tempted Eve in the Garden. It has been Satan’s tool of choice by which he attempts to destroy the church.

The spirit of the world during an age of rampant humanism has redefined and compartmentalized the meaning of truth in all spheres of American life. Decades of this humanistic view of truth has been absorbed by most Christians and evangelical churches. They now unconsciously accept the heresy that there are two sources of truth—religious truth and all other truth newly enthroned by the enlightened age of science and reason. In one half of the dichotomy are matters of science and reason. This truth is considered to be public truth and applies to all individuals and to all spheres of public life including the physical sciences, social sciences, politics, economics, and the arts. The other half of humanism’s dichotomy of truth is limited to religious truth which is oriented toward religion and involves matters of personal opinion such as the existence of God, values, and morality. Since these are deemed to be personal beliefs, they are considered as being non-rational, subjective, and have no basis in fact in the natural world and therefore privatized which is to say they have no voice in the affairs of the other spheres of American life.[3] Particularly since the age of Enlightenment and its codification of the humanistic philosophy, this false dichotomy of truth is the modern veneer which covers the unchanging spirit of the world present since the fall of mankind.

However, biblical truth can never be shoved into a compartment in which religious matters are only allowed to contribute suggestions as to values and standards of morality in a pluralistic, independently functioning culture. To the contrary, the biblical revelation is the only correct answer to the scientists’ perpetual quest for a “theory of everything.” The Bible gives truthful answers as to where man came from, describes what went wrong with the world, and tells man how he can get out of the mess man he has made. Nevertheless, many evangelicals have bought into the humanistic dichotomy of truth, and it has been a catastrophe for the church and culture in America.

The evangelical church has been especially susceptible to the humanistic spirit of the world for two reasons. One is theological and the other is cultural.

Biblical illiteracy

Within the theological realm, the evangelical church has exhibited a marked growth in biblical illiteracy in the last decades of the twentieth century and continues to the present day (by which is meant a remarkable lack of familiarity with the Bible and its central themes and teachings). In the spirit of the age, consistent and thematic biblical teaching has substantially declined in many evangelical churches. Here we speak of the decline in Sunday school training for all ages and the discontinuance of children and youth organizations within the church that promoted scripture memorization and biblical knowledge for decades.

At the same time, there has been a significant decline in expository preaching as preachers began emphasizing the therapeutic realm of personal relationships and feelings. This has led to a drift away from preaching the great organizing themes of the Bible such as the nature and character of God; the creation, fall, and redemption; the historical narratives of the Old and New Testaments; and the Christian walk in a hostile world.[4] There is a time for pulpit teaching on topical and peripheral subjects, but for many it has become the rule rather than the exception. An excess of topical preaching leads to fragmentation by which is meant fragmentation of the Christian worldview. Furthermore, fragmentation of the Word causes man to descend from the glorious heights from which one can clearly see truth to a forest of facts and minutia that hide truth and ultimately destroys within men’s minds the concept that truth exists. Fragmentation tends toward relativism in which selected facts are arranged to fit the desired outcome and results in loss of context.

Evangelicals must evangelize, and it does not occur under sterile laboratory conditions but in a messy, hostile culture residing in Satan’s domain. To effectively evangelize is to spread the gospel message but not in a hit and run fashion. We have a responsibility to engage individuals and the culture by being prepared to give reasons which support the credibility of the Bible, especially when challenged by skepticism and pagan philosophies.

In the early part of the twentieth century, the fundamentalists effectively disengaged from and abandoned the culture to the secular humanists and their toady colleagues in the liberal churches. Later mid-twentieth century evangelicals once again began engaging the culture to counter the spirit of the world. But following the tumultuous 1960s, the last three generations of the evangelical church have retreated and failed to adequately defend the culture from alien philosophies such as humanism and false religions in a skeptical, post-modern age. Even when past generations of evangelicals knew their Bible exceptionally well, historically they were not well-versed in apologetics, the history of the church, and the wisdom of the great Christian thinkers and writers of the past. As a general rule, evangelicals have never fared well in presenting and defending their faith when challenged by skepticism and hostile ideas and ideologies. This must change.

Accommodating the spirit of the world

On the cultural front, the evangelical church has not only not countered the spirit of the world but accommodated much of it in the church. Instead of evangelizing the world, the world has evangelized the church. Many in evangelical leadership will vehemently deny this assertion and point to their success in reaching out and being relevant to the culture in which we find ourselves. We cannot dispute the fact that the church must translate unchanging Christian theology into the contemporary language of each generation. But irrespective of the claims of many in evangelical leadership, there is a difference between evangelism through accommodation of the spirit of the world occurring in many evangelical churches today and that of earlier eras when evangelism meant an uncompromised presentation of the word of God in the face of ridicule and rejection by a hostile culture. While the evangelical churches proudly boast of their effectiveness in fulfilling the great commission by winning the lost, such conversions accomplished through accommodating the spirit of the world ring hollow when large numbers of those converts do not subsequently exhibit commitment to a Christian lifestyle.

To a significant extent, the modern church has not stood against the spirit of the world in the church or in the public arena. Whether occurring through compromise, adding to, taking away, misinterpretation, disregard, neglect, or ignorance, the process of accommodation, however subtle, has diminished the authority of scripture. Writing thirty years ago, Schaeffer succinctly describes the importance of fidelity to scriptural authority in both word and deed.

What seems like a minor difference at first, in the end makes all the difference in the world…in things pertaining to theology, doctrine, and spiritual matters, but it also makes all the difference in things pertaining to the daily Christian life and how we as Christians are to relate to the world around us. In other words, compromising the full authority of Scripture eventually affects what it means to be a Christian theologically and how we live in the full spectrum of human life.[5]

Schaeffer points out that the pre-Reformation church believed in the inerrancy of scripture, but they had allowed many non-biblical theological ideas to infiltrate the church. These ideas were placed alongside of the Bible and in some instances were regarded as superior to the Bible. Eventually, these non-biblical teachings and practices led to abuses which brought about the Reformation.[6] Likewise, many of today’s evangelical churches are allowing questionable practices to infiltrate their churches which are contrary to both the words and meaning of the scriptures. Although the statements of faith of many evangelical churches proudly list the inerrancy and authority of the scriptures, their preaching and practices say otherwise.

In summary, the diminution and/or abandonment of the Bible as the infallible and inerrant truth of God is occurring in varying degrees in many evangelical denominations, churches, fellowships, and organizations. It occurs because of a growing ignorance of evangelicals in Bible knowledge and accommodation of the spirit of the world within the churches.

Evangelical churches arose during the First Great Awakening and have been at among those at the forefront of all that has been good in the church world and America for over three hundred years. They are not perfect and never have been, and they will continue to make mistakes. But the evangelical church must continually examine itself and make necessary course corrections when error enters in order to avoid those heartbreaking words spoken by Christ in the Sermon on the Mount.

Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many works in your name? And then will I declare to them, I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers. [Matthew 7: 21-23. RSV]

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:

[1] Francis A. Schaeffer, The Great Evangelical Disaster, (Westchester, Illinois: Crossway Books, 1984), p. 168.
[2] Ibid., p. 64.
[3] Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth, (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2004, 2005), pp. 20-21.
[4] Ibid., p. 301.
[5] Schaeffer, pp. 44-45.
[6] Ibid., p. 45.

The American Church Series – Will your house be left unto you desolate?

Posted by :admin On : July 10, 2015
0

Category: American Church, Archives, Christianity, Truth

[This is the 125th article I have written over the past 125 weeks. I feel it is time for a short sabbatical. This article will be the last for about eight weeks and serve as an introduction for a series of articles beginning in September on the plight of the American church. Given the significant moral decline of America over the last half decade, it is necessary to examine the symptoms and root causes that have been present for well over a century. In this series of articles we shall briefly survey the history of the church since its inception two thousand years ago. Understanding the central themes of its history is important and will give insight and perspective to the issues faced by today’s Christian church. More importantly, we shall extensively examine the afflictions and failings of the modern American church that have led to its demise as a moral force necessary to stem the decline of American culture.]
———
The modern American church is in great distress and suffering attack from within and without. The forces of attack include secular humanism and false religions. But the greatest threat to the church comes from within and can be described as nothing less than the diminution and for some the abandonment of biblical truth.

This series of articles focuses on the American church and its role in the nation’s moral decline. However, regardless of how dark the future may appear for the church, we must always know that God is still on His throne and born-again Christians are ultimately on the side of victory. I was reminded of this by a sermon preached this last Wednesday night by our associate pastor at the church I attend. The text for his sermon was taken from Isaiah.

Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. [Isiah 60:1-2. RSV]

Matthew 5:14-15 tells us that, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.” And even the “thick darkness” that covers the people of this age can be driven out by the light of God’s people. But if His people fail to be the light of the world and do not remember their first love, God will remove their lampstand unless they repent. [See: Revelation 2:4-5.] The lampstands of many American churches have been removed or are in danger of removal because they have let the light of God’s truth be dimmed if not completely extinguished which has resulted in the deterioration of American moral culture.

In his letter to the Ephesian church, the Apostle Paul described the nature of the enemy and the Christian’s preparation for battle.

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. [Ephesians 6:10-18. KJV]

The church’s first essential in putting on the armor of God is girding its loins about with truth. To gird means to surround, enclose, and prepare oneself for action. Writing three hundred years ago, Matthew Henry describes the importance and centrality of biblical truth in the Christian’s armor.

The apostle specifies the particulars of this armour, both offensive and defensive. The military girdle or belt, the breastplate, the greaves (or soldier’s shoes), the shield, the helmet, and the sword. It is observable that, among them all, there is none for the back; if we turn our back upon the enemy, we are exposed. Truth is our girdle. This is the strength of our loins; and it girds on all other pieces of our amour, and therefore is the first mentioned. I know no religion without security.[1] [emphasis added]

It appears that the majority of modern American churches are failing to gird themselves with the truth of the Word of God. Through compromise, adding to, taking away, misinterpretation, disregard, ignorance, perversion, or complete abandonment of biblical truth, they have little or nothing on which to hang the other pieces of their armor. To varying degrees this diminution and/or abandonment of the teachings and prophecies of the Bible as the infallible and inerrant truth of God has occurred in substantially all Protestant denominations, fellowships, and associations and the Catholic Church as well.

Not only has the church diminished or abandoned biblical truth, it has turned its back on the enemy and lies exposed. The modern church has not stood against the onslaught of the enemy in the public arena but fled in silence all the while trading away America’s Christian heritage of virtue, morality, justice, and decency through accommodation, compromise, and even abject surrender. Unless there is repentance by the church for its apostasy and cowardice in its failure to stand against the wiles of the devil, the glory of God will depart America, and its shame shall be a byword unto the entire world as “Ichabod”[2] is written above the door of its house.

Although this series of articles focuses on the dire straits of the church in America, it is not a time for Christians to run and hide in a cave as Elijah did following death threats from Jezebel after he had the 450 prophets of Baal put to death. In great fear Elijah fled for his life into the wilderness and eventually to Mount Horeb where he hid in a cave. God asked Elijah, “What are you doing here?” Elijah complained to God that although he had been faithful to Him, “…the people of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thy altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.” [1 Kings 19:13-14. RSV] But God told Elijah that He had seven thousand faithful servants in Israel who had not bowed to Baal.

Many in the church have the fearful mindset of Elijah. But faithful American Christians are not a small remnant that must cower in fear and silence in the face of enemy attacks. There are millions of God-fearing, born-again Christians in thousands of churches across America that unflinchingly stand for the truth of His word and who shine forth His glory. They are the hope of the church. But they must not be silent but speak the truth of God’s word so that their churches “…may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:

[1] Larry G. Johnson, Ye shall be as gods – Humanism and Christianity – The Battle for Supremacy in the American Cultural Vision, (Owasso, Oklahoma: Anvil House Press, 2011), pp. 123-124.
[2] Ichabod was the grandson of Eli and son of Phineas. When Phineas’ pregnant wife heard the news that the Ark of the Covenant was taken during a battle with the Philistines and that her father-in-law and her husband were killed, her travail caused her to give birth to a son. “And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father-in-law and her husband. And she said. The glory is departed from Israel, for the ark of God is taken.” [1 Samuel 4:21-22. KJV] Christ also portrayed the glory of God departing Israel as He left the Temple for the last time following his warnings to the Jewish religious establishment. “Behold your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” [Matthew 23: 38-39. KJV]

No war on Christianity? Count the casualties and read history.

Posted by :admin On : July 3, 2015
0

Category: Archives, Christianity, Constitution

On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler became the democratically elected chancellor of Germany. Almost immediately Herman Goring began reordering society along National Socialists (Nazi) lines. By fall of that year the Jewish community would understand the full scope of what Goring called “merely an administrative change.” Jewish businesses were boycotted. Jews could not hold civil service jobs or be patent lawyers, and doctors, dentists, and dental technicians were not allowed to practice in hospitals or offices connected with state-run insurance. Anti-Jewish laws were expanded to include university professors and lecturers. By October Jews were banned from journalism and all entertainment and cultural activities including literature, the arts, theater, and film.[1]

Given hindsight, Tulsa World associate editor Mike Jones (“War talk”)[2] would probably consider these actions a war on Judaism. However, Jones insists there is not a war on Christianity in spite of a vast amount of media coverage reporting similar restrictions on Christians throughout America because their beliefs and practices of their faith.

Christian-owned business are being boycotted, fined, and/or driven out of business because of their owners’ faith. Because of their Christian beliefs, university students have been expelled or blocked from entering certain professions, professors have been denied jobs or promotions, health care professionals are being fired, public employees are being fired, media professionals have been fired or denied jobs, and military chaplains are being demoted or dismissed from the armed services. Pastors have been threatened with criminal prosecution because of the content of their sermons. The political and cultural parallels of the assault on Judaism in 1933 Germany and Christianity in 2015 America are exact and undeniable. And these attacks on Christians and their faith are not just isolated incidents but are occurring by the thousands in every sphere of American life.

Jones labels the alleged war on Christianity as merely a vote-getting ploy and that “those who insist on the Founders’ Christianity are sorely unaware of history or have simply chosen to ignore it.” According to Jones, only a handful of the Founders were really followers of the Christian faith and only one of the seven key Founders was an orthodox Christian. Jones claims the others were deists who did not believed in a providential God but a God that did not meddle in the affairs of men.[3] Were they really deists? The Founders’ own words expose the falseness of the allegations of their deism.

George Washington: “The hand of providence has been so conspicuous in all this (the course of the war) that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith…”[4] James Madison: “It is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in it a finger of that Almighty hand which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in the critical stages of revolution.”[5] Benjamin Franklin speaking during the Continental Convention: “…the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth—that God Governs in the affairs of men.”[6] Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence: “And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”[7] John Adams proclaiming a national day of fasting spoke of, “…of a deep sense and due acknowledgement of the growing providence of a Supreme Being…”[8]

What “providence” meant to the Founders was “Foresight, timely care; particularly active foresight…the care and superintendence which God exercises over his creatures.”[9]

Jones implies that the war on Christianity is nothing more than standing up for the rights of all Americans and quotes Washington to justify his views.

If I could conceive that the general government might ever be so administered as to render the liberty of conscience insecure, I beg you will be persuaded that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution.[10]

Rather than supporting Jones’ contention that there is no war on Christianity in America, Washington’s words condemn those whom Jones’ attempts to defend and are a perfect descriptor of a government in league with the spiritual tyranny of the religion of humanism which seeks to render the Christians’ liberty of conscience insecure. Humanism has become the de facto official religion of the nation at whose altar all other faiths must bow.

Jones’ article fails on two counts. There is a fanatical war on Christianity in America, and no amount of historical revisionism will demolish the indisputable Christian foundations of this nation.

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:

[1] Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer, (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, 2010), pp. 156, 160.
[2] Mike Jones, “War talk,” Tulsa World, May 31, 2015, G-1.
[3] Ibid.
[4] William J. Federer, America’s God and Country, (Coppell, Texas: Fame Publishing, Inc., 1996), p. 643.
[5] W. Cleon Skousen, The 5000 Year Leap, www.nccs.net: National Center for Constitutional Studies, 1981, p. iii.
[6] Federer, p. 248.
[7] Ibid., p. 200.
[8] Sherwood Eddy, The Kingdom of God and the American Dream, (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1941), p. 77.
[9] Noah Webster, “providence,” American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828, Facsimile Edition, (San Francisco, California: Foundation for American Christian Education, 1995).
[10] Jones.

Helicopter government – Part V – Overprogramming

Posted by :admin On : June 26, 2015
0

Category: Archives, Government, Socialism

This series of articles describes helicopter parenting and helicopter governing, the pathologies associated with each, and the impact on American culture. A helicopter government is one that exhibits characteristics similar to those of helicopter parenting which are expressed in four types of behavior: overprotection, overpraising, overindulging, and overprogramming. In Part V we shall examine our helicopter government’s overprogramming of the lives of its citizens through excessive and burdensome rules and regulations on individuals and culture at large and the pathologies and consequences thereof.

Overprogramming

One of the great tragedies of modern life over the last several decades is the loss of childhood in America. Perhaps a better word is “condensation” of childhood. Dr. David Elkind described this phenomenon in his 1981 book The Hurried Child.

…it is important to see childhood as a stage of life, not just as the anteroom to life. Hurrying children into adulthood violates the sanctity of life by giving one period priority over another. But if we really value human life, we will value each period equally and give unto each stage of life what is appropriate to that stage…In the end, a childhood is the most basic human right of children.[1]

Helicopter parents overprogram the lives of their children through obsessive scheduling, micromanaging, and monitoring. In such a regimented world the child becomes a pawn of the clock and calendar rather than a child of the moment or season. We see well-meaning parents over schedule their children’s lives with play-dates, organized sports, extra-curricular school activities, and the like with virtually no down time for just being a kid. The cell phone has become a child’s wireless umbilical cord by which parents micromanage and monitor the minutest actions and decisions of their children. One of the signs of an overprogrammed child is a frequent complaint of boredom (which means they have found themselves with an unfilled gap in their schedule). But whatever happened to good old-fashioned play? By “old-fashioned” play is meant unstructured, voluntary, no goals, curiosity unplugged, and fun. In other words, when does a child have his own personal and private downtime?

For many serious psychologists, sociologists, and education professionals, old-fashioned unstructured, purposeless play is as outmoded as yesterday’s bell-bottoms, a waste of time and energy, and non-productive. Yet, researchers have discovered the enormous benefits of unstructured play. It stimulates the brain; thrives on complexity, uncertainty, and possibility; makes us mentally quick; teaches social and survival skills; and stretches us as we grow toward adulthood. Effectively, play is practice for adulthood.[2] But in our children’s overprogrammed lives, play is now work and its activities (sports, music, camp, and other such activities) are now competitive and professionalized.[3] Children are now treated as miniature adults.

The governmental equivalent to parental overprogramming is a pervasive governmental interference in the lives of its citizens. Socialism is the practical application of the tenets of humanism which are being infused into society. The essence of a life overprogrammed by a humanistic helicopter government is a loss of freedom, a freedom by which is meant the absence of coercion as opposed to humanism’s new freedom which is not freedom at all. The new freedom is merely another name for leveling society through an equal distribution of wealth and circumstance. Rather than expanding the range of choice, leveling results in greater limitations on choice, and those limitations, which by definition is a loss of freedom, are the ultimate outcome of all socialistic systems.[4]

Leveling society requires omnipresent rules—petty, complicated, convoluted, uniform, voluminous, tedious, wearisome rules which dulls the mind, weakens the spirit, saps energy, crushes creativity, and opposes initiative. To give an inkling of the size of the overprogrammization of American life, Title 27 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations is the U.S. Tax Code which contains 16,845 pages including the part written by Congress. It is available for purchase from the U.S. Government Printing office for $1,153. However, the U.S. Tax Code is just one of 50 titles found in the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, each of which contains one or more individual volumes, which are updated once each calendar year, on a staggered basis.[5] To these we add a multitude of state, county, city, and other regulatory entities’ rules and regulations. These have become the official handbook for living life. Who needs freedom when the government has all the answers?

Overprogramming life, whether the catalyst is a helicopter parent or a helicopter government, robs child and adult alike of perspective as to the important things in life. As we travel through various seasons of life, perspectives change but the things of importance never do. As we enter adulthood, the appointment book fills and the “to do” list lengthens. That is a normal part of life, but such things are temporal and appear much less important in life’s rear view mirror. It is the moments and seasons we savor, store in our memory banks, and protect for they cannot be recreated or rescheduled.

Who hasn’t smiled at the joy and wonder of a four-year-old boy focusing on the fascinating complexities of a dandelion or gazing at the playful wanderings of a butterfly on a sunny spring afternoon all the while oblivious to yells from parents and coaches as the soccer ball rolls past him?

How many of us adults are secret Walter Mitty types who have on occasion snatched a moment from our childhood to ride with the Commander as he pilots the Navy hydroplane through the worst storm in twenty years of Navy flying…or stand beside Captain Mitty as we strap on our Webley-Vickers 50.80 automatics and prepare to fly forty miles through hell while the cannonading shells from the box barrage crash around the dugout…[6] We all deserve a childhood, and if we are fortunate, a little bit of our childhood’s innocence, wonder, and adventure will survive in us and act as a respite if not a reprieve from our helicopter government’s overprogrammed world.

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:

[1] David Elkind, Ph.D., The hurried child – growing up too fast too soon, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Da Capo Press, 2007), p. 221.
[2] Hara Estroff Marano, A Nation of Wimps, (New York: Broadway Books, 2009), pp. 86-87.
[3] Elkind, p. 214.
[4] Larry G. Johnson, Ye shall be as gods – Humanism and Christianity – The Battle for Supremacy in the American Cultural Vision, (Owasso, Oklahoma: Anvil House Publishers, 2011), p. 243.
[5] “What is the Real Size of the U.S. Federal Tax Code,” Isaac Brock Society, February 12, 2012.
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2012/02/12/what-is-the-real-size-of-the-u-s-federal-tax-code/ (accessed April 9, 2014).
[6] James Thurber, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” Introduction to Literature, 4th Edition, (eds., Louis G. Locke, William M. Gibson, and George Arms, (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1962), p. 418-421.

Helicopter government – Part IV – Overindulging

Posted by :admin On : June 19, 2015
0

Category: Archives, Government, Humanism, Socialism

This series of articles describes helicopter parenting and helicopter governing, the pathologies associated with each, and the impact on American culture. A helicopter government is one that exhibits characteristics similar to those of helicopter parenting which are expressed in four types of behavior: overprotection, overpraising, overindulging, and overprogramming. In Part IV we shall examine our helicopter government’s ruinous overindulgence and the pathologies and consequences thereof to individuals and culture at large.

Overindulging

Life is one of limitations. In every facet of life we face restrictions, either natural (e.g., gravity) or man-made (e.g., laws, codes of conduct, regulations, rules). Children must learn at an early age that those limitations include both actions and material things. A child who is always given whatever they want or allowed to do anything they want will have difficulty relating actions with consequences, developing a work ethic, understanding the relationship between effort and reward, and appreciating the concept of delayed gratification. Many parents have ignored these lessons when training their children, and their overindulged children have grown up to be overindulged adults with a sense of entitlement. Richard Weaver compared those with an entitlement mentality to a spoiled child. He wrote, “The spoiled child has not been made to see the relationship between effort and reward. He wants things, but regards payment as an imposition or as an expression of malice by those who withhold for it. His solution…is to abuse those who do not gratify him.”[1]

The Boomer generation (born between the end of World War II and the end of 1964) was the first to wear the badge of entitlement. Boomers grew up in an era of unbridled economic optimism, abundance, and prosperity which they assumed would last forever. In 1965, the first year after the Boomer generation officially ended, Charles Reich wrote, “Society today is built around entitlement.” In other words, there was a firm popular expectation that some specific or general outcome will occur, whether or not it is formally embodied in law. These expectations include professional licenses, executive contracts, stock options, social security pensions, and education, and most of the more important entitlements flow in some form or fashion from government. But, whether private or from government, “…to the recipients they (entitlements) are essentials, fully deserved, and in no sense a form of charity.”[2]

The growth of the Boomers’ embryonic entitlement mentality would be dramatically boosted during the last birth year of their generational cohort. In his 1964 State of the Union address, President Johnson proposed a massive legislative assault that would move an already “…rich society…upward to the Great Society.” This was the beginning of the war on poverty built on a massive array of new federal programs designed to aid the poor. However, over the next two decades, federal legislation and social policy engineers and architects would “…re-enslave many poor and minorities into a web of government dependency.” One of the most damaging programs was the Aid for Dependent Children whose qualifying requirements were changed to include any household with no male family head present, that is, it became more lucrative to not be married than to be married. The effects of these policies were devastating to the family and traditional marriage. In 1950, families comprising a husband and wife in a traditional marriage were represented by 88 percent of white families and 78 percent of black families. With the modification of AFDC guidelines by Johnson and Congress, the black family structure began a rapid decline in 1967. By the late 1970s, intact black families had declined to 59 percent compared to 85 percent for white families.[3]

The entitlement society is a derivative of humanism as can be seen in the Humanist Manifesto. If an individual cannot contribute to their own betterment, “…then society should provide means to satisfy their basic economic, health, and cultural needs, including whatever resources make possible, a minimum guaranteed annual income.”[4]

As the humanistic worldview has ascended in America, the nation has moved toward economic bondage in both government and private sectors as socialism and its entitlement mentality have become ingrained in the American consciousness.[5] An entitlement society ultimately fails because it is based on a false understanding of human nature. The fatal flaw of an entitlement society is utopianism, “…its presumption that we are inexorably on our way toward a perfect society.”[6] This is humanism’s faith in the utopian concept of human perfectibility known as progressivism which denies the fallen, corruptible nature of man.

It is right and proper to distinguish between what is government’s responsibility and what is private (individual or institution) responsibility. However in this division of responsibility, Americans have forgotten that they are the government and that the government has and always will have limited resources. The political system now dances to the music of the entitled who have the loudest and/or largest band. With an entitlement mentality, we attempt to fix unlimited numbers of problems with limited resources rather than reasonably allocate available resources to the most pressing problems while providing a safety net for the poor but not a chaise lounge.

In 2006 Leonard Steinhorn published The Greater Generation-In Defense of the Baby Boom Legacy. He makes an exceptionally revealing statement about the general mindset and attitude of the Boomers—that of entitlement—which had become pervasive by the end of the twentieth century. He wrote, “The problem is that the reality of Greatest Generation America fell far short of the ideal—the America that Boomers beheld wasn’t even close to the America they were promised.”[7] (emphasis added) What generation was ever promised anything? Each generation receives the cultural heritage of all that have gone before. Each generation is given the opportunity to do great and good things, and they should do better for they stand on the shoulders of their ancestors. Each generation is given an opportunity, not a promise nor an entitlement.[8]

America has become the land of entitlements whose national anthem is now “We deserve”, and for three generations there has been little memory of the historical relationship between actions and consequences, effort and reward, a work ethic, and delayed gratification. Americans’ concept of the role of government has changed dramatically in the last eighty-five years. To illustrate the transition from an independent, self-reliant people to an overindulged entitlement generation, I retell the story of an incident my long-deceased grandmother told to me many years ago and about which I’ve written before.

My father’s family was considered poor even by the standards of the Great Depression. During that time, my father’s mother, my grandmother, cared for a sick husband and five children, cleaned people’s houses, and did laundry and sewing for others. When she was in her eighties, she told me of an incident that she experienced during the Depression. There was no food to feed her family. So she went to the back door of a little restaurant at closing time in the small rural town of Collinsville, Oklahoma, where they lived. She asked for any leftover soup. It was some fifty years later, but she still called it the worst day of her life. Her attitude may seem strange to a twenty-first century citizen with a typical entitlement mentality prevalent in United States today, but such were the people of the Greatest Generation and their ancestors.[9]

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:

[1] Richard M. Weaver, Ideas Have Consequences, (Chicago, Illinois: The University of Chicago Press, 1948), p. 113.
[2] Larry G. Johnson, Ye shall be as gods – Humanism and Christianity – The Battle for Supremacy in the American Cultural Vision, (Owasso, Oklahoma: Anvil House Publishers, 2011), p. 3. Quoted material from: Robert J. Samuelson, The Good Life and Its Discontents, (New York: Vintage Books, 1995, 1997), pp. 46-47.
[3] Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen, A Patriot’s History of the United States,” (New York: Sentinel, 2004), pp. 687-688.
[4] Paul Kurtz, ed., Humanist Manifestos I and II, (Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, 1973), p. 20.
[5] Johnson, p. 406.
[6] Samuelson, p. 218.
[7] Leonard Steinhorn, The Greater Generation – In Defense of the Baby Boom Legacy, (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2006), p. 69.
[8] Johnson, p. 41.
[9] Ibid., p. 3.