Skip to main content

How Secularism Threatens Freedom and Righteousness in America

Share This article

Over the last century, secularism in America has triumphed so spectacularly that secularists now dominate the cultural mountains of influence: business, government, media, arts and entertainment, education, the family and religion.

Raised upon the Christian cultural foundation laid by the American Founders in the 17th and 18th centuries, secularists have produced a structure that is the antithesis to the Founders intention.

Unless confronted by the men and women of Issachar, people “who know the times and know what to do” ( ), secularism spells doom for freedom and liberty in America. Why? Because virtue is a key component of freedom. The glory of a nation lies in its righteousness, not in its military or economic prowess.

Nevertheless, give the Left credit on the grounds that they surely don’t lack hubris. I mean, who possibly would have the chutzpah to toy with the four-thousand-year-old definition of marriage?

In the 5-4 Obergefell v. Hodges decision in 2015, Justices Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan unearthed (in the bowels of Constitution!) the right to homosexual marriage. This gem of legal maneuvering found a Constitutional right to same-sex intercourse and marriage 230 years after the Articles of Confederation was signed in 1787. Apparently, the right to homosexual marriage was concealed from the legal giants of yesteryear like Joseph Story, Oliver Wendell Holmes, John Marshall, Earl Warren, etc.

Of course, this discovery commands a price from freedom in God’s everlasting order. The refusal to live within the God-given boundaries, intended by the Founders, brings consequences on the nation.

“There are six things the Lord hates— no, seven things he detests: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent, a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do wrong, a false witness who pours out lies, a person who sows discord in a family” ( ).

The first in Solomon’s catalog of abominations is “haughty eyes”. Dr. Bruce K. Waltke observed, “No vice stands in sharper opposition to wisdom and fear of God than pride.”* Re-defining the four-thousand-year-old definition of marriage has to reach the pinnacle of arrogance!

Would you care to guess the antidote for those who rebel against God’s unending order? Solomon wrote: “The rebellious man seeks only evil; therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him” ( ).

Jewish Biblical scholar Michael V. Fox interprets, “If a man rebels against the king, a human messenger is sent to punish him. If he rebels against God’s word, punitive angels are dispatched. It is possible that the punishment is executed by angels, because God himself, as this socially conservative book sees it, defends the political order, if it is just.”

If you can, make application to the five U.S. Supreme Court Justices who ruled two years ago to codify same-sex intercourse and marriage. Solomon indicates that there is a certainty of punishment, not its proximity. Overconfidence in one’s power breeds arrogance, which leads to disaster. If I were one of the five Justices, I’d repent and ask for forgiveness. “The beginning of wisdom is fear of the Lord” ( ).

Now to the larger point. Secularism has imposed its godlessness on America’s youth for the last three-quarters century, devastating public education and higher learning. American education has collapsed under the weight of Secularism. Moral and academic anarchy now reign. Something curious has happened to those who define themselves as anti-fascist, who in reality are the fascists.

As Mark Steyn wrote: “The Left, the Western Left, is on the same continuum as the Charlie Hebdo killers. They’re both in the shut-up business, who want to END the debate rather than win the debate.” 

Calling themselves anti-fascists, the secular Left is demonstrating its fascist inclinations by torching university buildings and shutting down speakers on college campuses.

If America is to survive, virtue and fidelity must be reestablished in public schools and universities. Loyalty and fidelity to God, is what guards the nation. Spiritual men must move to the front and lead their families. As goes the family, so goes the nation. Bill Bennett observed:

"Someone once characterized the two essential questions Plato posed as: Who teaches the children, and what do we teach them?

We need to respond to this culture that sends confusing signals to young men, a culture that is agnostic about what it wants men to be, with a clear and achievable notion of manhood.

The Founding Fathers believed, and the evidence still shows, that industriousness, marriage and religion are a very important basis for male empowerment and achievement. We may need to say to a number of our 20-something men, ‘Get off the video games five hours a day, get yourself together, get a challenging job and get married.’ It’s time for men to man up.”

Evangelical and Pro-Life Catholic Christians in the last century have deserted the responsibilities prescribed by America’s Founders for living free. We have assigned the making, enforcement, and adjudication of laws to those lacking Divine faith. Those antagonistic to Biblical values now control public education, higher learning, City Hall, Big Business, the Courts, Hollywood, media and politics.

“Liberals welcome believers insofar as religion can be deployed in service of liberal causes, to be sure. But any expression of theological or moral judgment is met with hostility.”

As long as there is no application, offering a moral standard to secularists raises no opposition.

If America is to be saved from the onslaught of Secularism, Gideons and Rahabs are going to have to lead.

David Lane is Founder of the American Renewal Project

* Bruce K. Waltke, Proverbs Commentary

** William J. Bennett, Why Men are in Trouble

*** Liberalism: Believers Need Not Apply 

Share This article

About The Author

David
Lane

David Lane is the Founder of the American Renewal Project