As We Celebrate Independence Day, Will the Church Awaken From Its Slumber?

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich recently authored an opinion piece titled “Confronting Evil” on his website.

“When I learned that a group of activists at New York City’s annual drag queen parade were chanting ‘We’re coming for your children,’ it was the final straw.

“This calls for a blunt, straightforward repudiation of those who would destroy our children and civilization. …

“Just a few weeks ago, the Los Angeles Dodgers honored a group called the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, designed to show contempt for women around the world.”

The former speaker’s rightful indignation may be laid straight at the feet of contemporary secular education, as this state-funded apparatus remains the principal device for inculcating America’s youth with evil and depravity.

In light of the fact that 37 of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence held the 18th-century equivalent of seminary degrees, we cannot help but wonder why American Christendom is not pushing for a mass exodus from public education. The same type of exit with the capital E of Exodus liberated the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt in the 13th century B.C., under Moses’ servant leadership and God’s guidance. “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest,” (Ex. 33:14).

Despite such divine assurance, the church has not awoken from its slumber.

All culture and political thought rests on a given foundation; one religious worldview or another invariably forms the basis for all political philosophy, principles and regulations established in a community by some authority and applicable to its people. Scripture, established by America’s founders as the central cohesive source of virtue and discernment, has been discarded by intellectual elites as antiquated.

The claim that present-day public education is religiously neutral is an absurdity inconsistent with reason or logic. There is no such thing as neutrality in religion; to reject God is every bit of a religious decision as to embrace Him. Secularism instilling its unhallowed doctrines and dogmas in America’s youth is as much of a religious activity, albeit of an infernal quality, as the teachings of Christianity about Jesus Christ, Son of God.

That the chickens have now come home to roost can be simply deduced from the steep decline of contemporary culture and education. American Christendom’s abandonment of the public square has been catastrophic. Aside from the spiritual ramifications of an impotent and disengaged church, from a political point of view it’s just Civics 101. In a democratic republic the constituents vote to select their representatives for political office, thereby empowering them to create and pass legislation and so codify into law the preferences, wishes, ideology and values of their voters.

The church has by and large been absent from this process of election, instead choosing to hunker down behind the four walls of the building. With half of the estimated 65 to 80 million evangelicals not being registered to vote (that is, having never voted), half of that half (25% overall) only vote in a presidential year election. Worse still, no more than 12 to 18% of the 65 to 80 million vote in off-year elections. Catholics show equally low numbers in voter registration and voting.

Christian’s relinquishing of basic civil government citizenship, in disobedience to the gospel, has sanctioned those living in rebellion against God to hold sway over the nation’s spiritual, intellectual, educational, economic, vocational and cultural levers of power. Thus, those mountains of influence exalt and normalize sin, mirroring secularist values and religious beliefs of following “science.”

Missouri Pastor Joe Nicola ran for Missouri State Senate District 8 in 2022. In his excellent work “‘Ekklesia’: The Government of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth,” he writes: “Any casual observer of Christianity will immediately recognize the disparity between what Jesus said He would build and the modern church.

“Unfortunately, we have lost sight of Jesus’ original aims. Our Bible translation was corrupted by the mistranslation of a single word, church (Greek: ‘ekklesia’), representing an intentional power grab by hell intent on controlling the Christian religious structure as the serpent did in the garden: by deception.”

Pastor Nicola concludes that the current model of butts, buildings and budgets is based on the success of one’s business or church, whereas it should be based on the question of how one’s community or region is doing. “Is my city or region looking more like the kingdom of heaven or the domain of darkness?”

Praise and salutation on Independence Day 2023 to the Gideons and Rahabs now entering the public square! A long-awaited awakening has begun. {eoa}