I am old.
I grew up in the Bible belt, where even people who did not go to church knew the Ten Commandments, the Creation story, some of the Beatitudes, a few parables, and at least 2 verses of Amazing Grace.
And yet, two of my four years in a public high school were 2 of the 3 loneliest years of my life. (My last year of middle school in a Christian school ranked third.) As one of my high school friends told me one day after overhearing classmates discussing weekend plans, "It's not that we don't like you, but we don't invite you to our parties because we know you don't drink. We don't won't to offend you by inviting you to something we know you can't come to." I actually appreciated her comments, and to this day that girl holds a very soft spot in my heart.
Then I went off to a Christian college, and the remainder of my life has been somewhat isolated within Christian communities EXCEPT for 2.5 years at Wake Tech and one summer at UAB. It was the teachers at UAB that shocked me. It was everything about Wake Tech that did.
One particular incident has come back to mind quite a bit this past week. I had an 18 year old classmate who was absolutely dumbfounded to find one of his four "teammates" (we were assigned to creative teams for the class) was a Christian. But not just a Christian, but in his terms, "the 7 day creation, there was a flood, the Bible is true, every word of it, kind of Christian". It floored him. He even moved his chair away from me a little and briefly debated whether or not he could even be on my creative team. He was a very talented artist, a bit disrespectful in his attitude toward his parents, but what dumbfounded me the most was his ability to lie without batting an eye. He could share something with you one day, and then the next week deny ever saying it. It almost made me wonder if he had split personalities. But as time progressed, I realized he simply had no moral compass.
David Aiken addresses this issue in his biography of George Bush "A Man of Faith" where he deals with the fact that in his earlier years Bush read the Bible because it was a good moral book to read. Over half of Americans today are Biblically illiterate. The items listed above that I remember non-Christians knowing growing up are now a thing of the past. And I find it interesting that before Bush personally met Jesus, he considered reading the Bible every day important because it provided a moral framework for the world.
My WTCC classmate didn't have that framework. And quite honestly, if one has never been taught the importance of the Christian worldview, why should anyone be honest? Think about it. The world revolves around you. All that matters is you. If everything is relative to you, your wants, your needs, your desires, then what motivation or reasoning is there for you to be honest about anything? All that matters is that you get what you want. (Remind you of a passage in Isaiah?)
The recollections of my classmate's lack of moral compass and the words from Bush's biography collided today as I finished up Palin's Going Rogue. Her last chapter details differences in how people who have been brought up on American (godly) principles and people who have been brought up on liberal (it's all about me) principles deal with life, specifically in the area of politics. And it's shattering and mind-boggling. But sadly it's true.
Our nation will never be able to solve its economic, political, and financial woes until we can return the basic tenants of Christianity. Honesty, caring for your neighbor, living for something besides your self are all by-products of the Christian life.
Our God is a God of hope. That means there's still a fighting chance for our country. But until we as a whole willingly return our broken compass to Him for repair, I fear all of our band-aid fixes will only slow the bleeding and not heal the wound.
As I age each day I'm understanding more why the Christian faith is a lifestyle, and why we are called to be a "peculiar" people.
I grew up in the Bible belt, where even people who did not go to church knew the Ten Commandments, the Creation story, some of the Beatitudes, a few parables, and at least 2 verses of Amazing Grace.
And yet, two of my four years in a public high school were 2 of the 3 loneliest years of my life. (My last year of middle school in a Christian school ranked third.) As one of my high school friends told me one day after overhearing classmates discussing weekend plans, "It's not that we don't like you, but we don't invite you to our parties because we know you don't drink. We don't won't to offend you by inviting you to something we know you can't come to." I actually appreciated her comments, and to this day that girl holds a very soft spot in my heart.
Then I went off to a Christian college, and the remainder of my life has been somewhat isolated within Christian communities EXCEPT for 2.5 years at Wake Tech and one summer at UAB. It was the teachers at UAB that shocked me. It was everything about Wake Tech that did.
One particular incident has come back to mind quite a bit this past week. I had an 18 year old classmate who was absolutely dumbfounded to find one of his four "teammates" (we were assigned to creative teams for the class) was a Christian. But not just a Christian, but in his terms, "the 7 day creation, there was a flood, the Bible is true, every word of it, kind of Christian". It floored him. He even moved his chair away from me a little and briefly debated whether or not he could even be on my creative team. He was a very talented artist, a bit disrespectful in his attitude toward his parents, but what dumbfounded me the most was his ability to lie without batting an eye. He could share something with you one day, and then the next week deny ever saying it. It almost made me wonder if he had split personalities. But as time progressed, I realized he simply had no moral compass.
David Aiken addresses this issue in his biography of George Bush "A Man of Faith" where he deals with the fact that in his earlier years Bush read the Bible because it was a good moral book to read. Over half of Americans today are Biblically illiterate. The items listed above that I remember non-Christians knowing growing up are now a thing of the past. And I find it interesting that before Bush personally met Jesus, he considered reading the Bible every day important because it provided a moral framework for the world.
My WTCC classmate didn't have that framework. And quite honestly, if one has never been taught the importance of the Christian worldview, why should anyone be honest? Think about it. The world revolves around you. All that matters is you. If everything is relative to you, your wants, your needs, your desires, then what motivation or reasoning is there for you to be honest about anything? All that matters is that you get what you want. (Remind you of a passage in Isaiah?)
The recollections of my classmate's lack of moral compass and the words from Bush's biography collided today as I finished up Palin's Going Rogue. Her last chapter details differences in how people who have been brought up on American (godly) principles and people who have been brought up on liberal (it's all about me) principles deal with life, specifically in the area of politics. And it's shattering and mind-boggling. But sadly it's true.
Our nation will never be able to solve its economic, political, and financial woes until we can return the basic tenants of Christianity. Honesty, caring for your neighbor, living for something besides your self are all by-products of the Christian life.
Our God is a God of hope. That means there's still a fighting chance for our country. But until we as a whole willingly return our broken compass to Him for repair, I fear all of our band-aid fixes will only slow the bleeding and not heal the wound.
As I age each day I'm understanding more why the Christian faith is a lifestyle, and why we are called to be a "peculiar" people.
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