Wednesday, May 09, 2018

Psychology Today: "Why Christianity Is On The Ropes"

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Phil Zuckerman, Ph.D., writes for Psychology Today, "I knew Christianity...had been on the ropes for some time. But I didn't know that it was so close to being knocked out."

Dr. Zuckerman offers his secular opinion as to why Christianity is all but knocked out.

His reasons are sobering, or should be to all biblical Christians.

And-- President Trump keeps his campaign promise and pulls out of Obama's Iran nuclear deal.


Yesterday afternoon President Trump announced that he will keep another campaign promise and pull out of Obama's Iran Nuclear Deal.

He said, "I am announcing today the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal...This is a horrible, one-sided deal that should never have been made...The Iran deal is defective to the core"..."At the heart of the Iran deal was a giant fiction, that a murderous regime desired only a peaceful, nuclear energy program...Today we have definitive proof that this Iranian promise was a lie."

The president said the deal does "nothing to protect the United States and our allies from the lunacy of an Iranian nuclear bomb...In fact, the deal allowed Iran to continue enriching uranium and over time reach the brink of a nuclear breakout."

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani responded by telling the press, "If we achieve the deal's goals in cooperation with other members of the deal, it will remain in place." He said he has ordered his people to negotiate with the other European countries.

Last night much of our press were wringing their hands wondering out loud what will happen to us now that Trump has done this.

There's no question this decision shook up the world. I mentioned yesterday on our live radio program prior to the president's announcement, Iran may be near the threshold of a revolution. Those close to the country say the people of Iran are fed up with the government and sick and tired of their government spending all their money supporting terrorism.

This could be the proverbial straw.

This, of course, will dominate the news today and in the coming days. Let not your heart be troubled. God is in control.

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Dr. Zuckerman wrote his piece about Christianity in Britain last May. Since then we have seen the consequences of "forgetting God" in their country.

And those consequences should be a warning siren to all of us in America.

Chris Woodward says the "country that killed Alfie left behind Lewis, Wilberforce, and Wesley."

Indeed they did.

You will recall that recently little Alfie Evans' life was abandoned by the British government, leaving him to die---probably of starvation, because the government deemed his life not worthy to fight for and try to save.

I wrote about it last week.

Dr. Richard Land, president of Southern Evangelical Seminary, told Woodward that allowing a child to die like that would have been unthinkable in the West forty years ago.

What changed?


Land points to Britain's post-Christian, post-human, pagan culture and says, "Now in the land of the Magna Carta, we have abandoned the Judeo-Christian value system that gave us the sanctity of every human life, the inspiration behind 'all men are created equal and they're endowed by their Creator by certain unalienable rights'."

He says, "Society has devolved from the sanctity of human life to 'quality of life' ethics."

This then slides into the realm of relativism that creates a very arbitrary standard for who lives and who does not, with people being devalued, based upon their abilities, their consequences, and upon their health.

Dr. Land calls it "death therapy."

Dr. Zuckerman bases his secular evaluation on psychology, sociology and the history of the incremental expansion of secularism---with his demographic facts based from a survey done by St. Mary's University.

Why it changed.


Zuckerman says there's no single cause, but offers several reasons why he believes Britain has become so secular. His secular reasons are striking---and should be a wake-up call to American Christians.

1. He talks about the influence of the brilliant teachers of The Enlightenment Movement in the 1700s in Europe, like David Hume and others.

He also notes that "Britain is home to one of the greatest minds to ever walk the earth, Charles Darwin, who's scientific insights did more to dislodge theism and debunk Biblical accounts of creation than ever previously thought possible."

He says the ideas of these men were born and first broadcast in Britain, "and they seeped into the collective intelligence successfully, over time."

2. He names a number of "vigorous public secularists who spent years promulgating secular ideals and arguing against religious faith---giving birth to The National Secular Society, founded in Britain in 1866."

He says, "Clearly, this activist secularism has born some societal fruit over its 150-year history."

3. And finally, he says, "There are other more modern/sociological factors at play, as well." Quoting, in part from British historian Callum Brown, author of "The Death of Christian Britain," secularist Zuckerman says this: "The dramatic increase of women in the paid labor force has played a role in religion's demise...when more and more women work outside the home, their religious involvement---as well as that of their families---tends to diminish."

He says, "This is because it has been women who have historically kept their children and husbands interested in and involved in religion, and yet as more and more of them began working outside the home---starting in significance in the 1960s---this socializing role weakened."

And he says "their interest in---or time and energy for religious involvement waned" and "these women grew less religious, their husbands and children followed suit."

He also says, in his secular opinion, when more and more people become more educated and more prosperous, they live in more security with less felt need--- "fewer people need religion to get through their lives."

"As a result, religion has become quaint," he says.

I'm not sure "quaint" is the best word---perhaps apathetic would better define the Christians he's talking about, but clearly, if the Christian Church does not speak with a clear Biblical voice, the house will not stand.

Be Informed. Be Faithful. Be Prayerful.