faith

A father-daughter research team detailed in a recent report that the decline of religion in America will affect not only religious organizations but a person’s health.

New Atheists have failed to realize that religion, especially Christianity, is the proverbial branch upon which they are sitting. For example, the freedom of expression depends on a number of assumptions, that there is objective truth, that it can be discovered, that it is accessible to people regardless of race or class, that belief should be free instead of coerced, that people have innate value, and that because of this value they should not be silenced.

Queen Elizabeth II's lifetime of service was inspired by her Christian faith and by the life of Jesus, who "came not to be served, but to serve," the archbishop of Canterbury said during the funeral service of the beloved monarch Monday.

Throughout his career, Dr. Rodney Stark was an irascible critic of political and religious biases in the academic world, especially in his own field of sociology. His intellectual brilliance is attested by his groundbreaking work, and his intellectual honesty and integrity by his faith, a faith he studied for many years.

Dr. Michael Brown, an apologist, author and radio host, expressed concern that Christians across the nation have elevated politics over their allegiance to Jesus Christ.

“Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature,” wrote Karl Marx, “…the opium of the people.” Decades of often painful historical experience has proven his observation both right and wrong. Believing in God does ease pain and suffering of faithful followers, but he was wrong in thinking that religion, especially Christianity, leaves them with nowhere else to go from there.

The family of a Little League baseball player whose story of blindness has captured national headlines says faith and a positive attitude helped their son overcome adversity to become a sports standout.

We don’t know if our moment is one where the enduring faithfulness of God’s people standing athwart the tides of history will push this world back to reality. Or if it is one where we will lose our lives in our quest to be faithful. What we do know is that Christ has called us to this time and this place. As Gandalf said to Frodo, when he wondered why he should have to live in such times, being meant to be here and now “is a very encouraging thought.” So, whatever comes, great victories or the full evaporation of progress, our task is the same: faithfulness, not success.

The fallenness of humanity is the primary reason I believe in democracy. It is why I believe America should support democracy wherever and however we can. However, my commitment to democracy contains the seeds of its own destruction: if one person cannot be trusted to rule others, ipso facto, a collective of people cannot be trusted to rule themselves.

An intimate, transformational relationship with Jesus Christ is our only hope for the kind of moral awakening our culture desperately needs.