America, Churches Losing Fight for Truth

by    Chuck Colson                                                                                                                                        Vol. VIII, No. 3, March 1995

With an arm around his 11-year-old granddaughter, Chuck Colson sat as Caroline read the caption under a picture of the Bill of Rights in her American history textbook: "The Bill of Rights promised individual freedoms to many people, but not to women, blacks, and native Americans." Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries and a former Nixon aide, related this story Feb. 27 at the Southern Baptist Christian Life Commission's annual seminar, "The War of the Worlds”, meeting at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., Feb. 27-March 1. "Why would we publish a textbook that is not only wrong but also misrepresents American history in a negative way?"

Continuing with "signs of the times," Colson cited a professor at San Francisco State University who was suspended for teaching the theory of evolution was flawed. "He was readmitted to the classroom only after agreeing not to teach that evolution was flawed. Where is academic freedom?" Colson asked.

"The Federal Aviation Administration has a `gender sensitivity' course" in which women view and then comment on pictures of male sex organs in the presence of male coworkers. Colson said many U.S. government agencies use this sort of training and asked, "Why do we do this - consciously humiliate people - why?"

Colson said a fourth-grade student was chastised by a principal in a St. Louis public school for praying before eating lunch. "He was threatened with expulsion, and the principal called the boy's parents, telling them, `Your son can't do this because it violates separation of church and state laws."'

In a northern Virginia community, you can sing Christmas carols on public property but only if "you do not mention the Lord's name," Colson said. "`Frosty the Snowman' is OK, but not `Silent Night.'

"Why, why do we want to exclude the symbols of our own faith, which belong to the vast majority of Americans?"

Saying Rep. Vic Fazio, D-Calif., "unfortunately survived the November elections," Colson quoted Fazio as saying, "This unchristian, uncharitable, so-called religious right should keep its business out of politics." He also cited another congressman who said, "Things have come to a sorry state in America when religion is allowed to interfere in public life."

Colson said amidst erupting applause that if not for William Wilberforce's religious convictions, England would never have outlawed its slave trade. "Thank God religion invaded public life, or we'd still have slavery.

"America's problems go much deeper than the distribution of condoms to teenagers and the appointment of Henry Foster as surgeon general. These events I have cited are all little skirmishes of a major war being waged not only for the heart and soul of America, but for Western culture as well."

Laying society's moral degradation at the feet of the Enlightenment era, Colson said for 1,800 years Western civilizations held to `transcendent moral standards by which people lived. We believed these came from God's revelation." But Colson added, the rationalism of the Renaissance said, "We no longer have to rely on God for revelation of moral truth and physical order. ... We can find truth through our own reason. "

Colson said these same ideas have persisted in the United States and were very prominent in the 60s. "We went through a revolution in America, and we cannot understand the role of the church, or the crisis in America, or even our own country unless we understand the kind of revolution that occurred in America three decades ago," when objective truth and any knowledge of it was rejected.

The prevailing views were "there is no truth, and there is no God," Colson said. "The kids of the 60s believed this; there is nothing more than eat, drink, cheap drugs, and free love - why not?"

The era and philosophy have not left Western culture, said Colson. "The hippies have simply shaved their beards, traded their tie-dyed T-shirts for three-piece business suits, moved to Wall Street, and become Yuppies." Colson said "live for yourself' and rampant relativism have become the "dominant ethos in American life."

Against all this stands the Christian world view, he said. "There is truth. It is knowable. God has spoken. We place a higher premium on truth than on tolerance."

Referring to national surveys, Colson said, "The statistics are chilling." A 1991 poll showed 67 percent of Americans rejected absolute truth, and three years later, the figure rose to 72 percent. Citing the same surveys (1991 and 1994) among "evangelical, born again Christians," Colson said 52 percent and 62 percent, respectively, of American Christians did not hold to absolute truth.

"We are losing the battle for truth in our churches' pews faster" than in the realms of the "cultural elites," Colson said.

"Polls in this country show that Americans believe that something isn't right, and even politicians can't fix it," said Colson. He cited a Newsweek survey that said 76 percent of Americans have a "spiritual yearning" for fulfillment.

Noting President Clinton's appearance on an MTV forum, wherein a young woman asked him how he would propose to teach young people that life is worth living, Colson said Clinton missed it altogether. "The answer can come only from the people of God as they live the truth of God."

After challenging Christians to find ways to live out their faith in their own communities and the world, Colson said, "Never despair. The battle for Christian truth and world view must continue. It is our duty." [BP]