Christian apologist and author Ken Ham says America is facing a worldview crisis due to generations of children being told there is no God or absolute authority.
The CEO and founder of Answers in Genesis, Ham said he’s often asked by fellow Christians, “What has happened to America?” The question, he said, often is framed in reference to debates over gender, sexuality and abortion. Ham made the comments in a recent speech that is receiving renewed attention due to a social media clip on his channels.
“A lot of people look at [America] and say, ‘How do we deal with all these different problems?’ But actually, they're all the same problem,” Ham said. “... They're actually different symptoms of the one problem.”
“Unless we understand that we're not going to be able to deal with it anyway,” he added.
Ham quoted Judges 21:25, “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.”
“You take generations of kids, you indoctrinate them – there's no God, the Bible is not true, there's no absolute authority except yourself, you're the absolute authority, you determine what's right and wrong – then ultimately, anything goes. And by the way, in a culture where anything goes, and you've got to allow all ideas and beliefs, what doesn't go are the absolutes of Christianity, because they're in conflict [with the world].”
America, he said, is facing “a worldview clash.” Although most Americans once held a Christian worldview, the dominant worldview today is secular, Ham said.
Even so, worldview battles are not new, Ham said. He pointed to the biblical story of the Garden of Eden, where in Genesis 2 God told Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
“In other words, [Adam and Eve were told,] ‘Obey God's word.’ But what happened? The devil came along in the form of a serpent [and asked them,] ‘Did God actually say?’
“The first attack was on the authority of the Word of God,” Ham said. “In fact, the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 11:3 warns us that the devil’s gonna use the same attack on us as he did on Eve.”
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Halfpoint
Video courtesy: ©Ken Ham
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
