Whence the craziness enveloping the once-Christian ‘West’?

by Don Batten Managing Director, CMI-Australia

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Extra, March 2018 (Creation magazine insert)

In the once-Christian world of ‘the West’, we seem to be awash in crazy thinking, which gets crazier by the day:

• Same-sex ‘marriage’; who would have thought even 20 years ago that such a notion would not only be seriously contemplated, but legislated in countries that only a generation ago designated homosexual behaviour as a prosecutable crime?
• Gender-bending ideology being taught to children in schools. In Australia it was implemented in the deceptively-titled ‘Safe Schools’ program and even funded by Federal and State governments. It’s called by other things in other countries. Even primary-school aged children are being encouraged to question their ‘gender’, as if this was something different to their biological sex. This causes ‘gender dysphoria’ where a boy might begin to think in his head that he feels like a girl, or vice versa. Children are even encouraged to experiment with homosexual behaviour. These programs amount to grooming children to be confused about their sexuality and to become ‘gay’ in their behaviour. A statement by the American College of Pediatricians said, “Conditioning children into believing a lifetime of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex is normal and healthful is child abuse.”¹
• Laws being passed to erase one’s birth sex from birth certificates; for example, in California.
• Regulations being enacted to make it an offense to call someone by a pronoun that reflects their biological sex when the person prefers ‘other’ gender pronouns (or even ‘non-gender’; neither male nor female).
• There is a movement to try to get equal rights for animals as for humans.² There is even talk of ‘rights’ for robots!¹
• Legalization and promotion of abortion in the name of ‘Women’s rights’ that allow killing of a baby in his/her mother’s womb right up to the full term of the pregnancy. The law in Victoria (Australia) allows for this, merely on the say-so of two complicit medical doctors.
• The push for liberal euthanasia laws that facilitate the elimination of those who are deemed a burden on society.
• Environmental regulations that protect man-destroying animals over humans.
• And much more.

What is the root of this craziness?

These things are symptoms of peoples who have turned their backs on God, our Creator. The Apostle Paul says in Romans 1:18–21

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. (emphasis added)

When people abandon the knowledge of God, He gives them over to ‘futile thinking’, and we see it all around us today, as our nations have abandoned God and His Word, the Bible.

When we discredit the Bible as the foundation of our customs and laws, what do we lose?

• That we are made in the image of God, and as such that we are rational beings who can have logical thoughts. If we are a product of a random process, an explosion of nothing to produce everything (the ‘big bang’), where our brains are the product of billions of chance mutations, why should we trust our thoughts to be rational? And then there is no such thing as truth and we have the ‘postmodern’ outlook that judges according to feelings and hurts, rather than any objective truth.
• That God made us in His image (Genesis 1:26), so human life is ‘sacred’. Thus, Christians throughout history have cared for the unloved and the unlovable. It was Christians who adopted orphans and started hospitals, etc. Today, who are the forgotten, uncared for? For a start, think of the millions of innocent babies with their lives snuffed out in abortion.
• That God made us male and female (Genesis 1:27), not an alphabet soup of genders. The modern gender bending ideology is ultimately an attack on God’s plan and purpose for us and for human flourishing.
• That we are fallen creatures (Genesis 3), and so we need redemption through what the Lord Jesus Christ has done. Our fallen-ness manifests itself in all manner of deviations (sin) from God’s perfect purposes for us, but we have a wonderful hope available in Christ. That hope is expressed like this:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

And so, we produce Creation magazine, a subversive, counter-cultural publication that endeavours to re-establish that which has been lost. As a result, those who have lost their way in this present toxic culture come to faith in Christ and into a right relationship with God. And so, we see people come to fulfil their God-ordained potential, along with human flourishing as we honour of God.

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