Blind Guides

Glenn Beck

According to Glenn Beck, a controversial conservative political commentator, if the country is lost, it will be lost because of the Christians.

What was Beck referring to? Was he referring to the Christian church's abdication of its role in keeping the Judeo-Christian worldview relevant in the United States? Was he referring to the sorry fact that the church has failed to adequately contend for the faith in America for over three generations? Or, was he referring to Christians who've sold out Christ for the temporal pleasures of this world?

Beck wasn't referring to any of that. Rather, he was referring to Christians who refuse to support Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and help him get elected to the presidency. You see? In Beck's eyes, it's just that easy. Just elect Cruz to the White House in November and that will stem the tide of godless secularism that's been steamrolling across America for the past 50 years.

Beck continued: There will be no one else to blame. You can’t blame the progressives. You can’t blame the left. You can’t blame Hillary Clinton. You can’t blame anyone else but the Christians who are not living and voting their principles.

If Cruz isn't elected as America's 45th president, it won't be because Christians didn't vote their principles; it will be because there aren't enough genuine Christians left in the nation to make a difference. 

Beck doesn't seem to realize that the United States circa 2016 isn't the United States of 1980 when Ronald Reagan soundly defeated Jimmy Carter for the presidency. That America doesn't exist anymore. 

That America consisted of a majority of conservatives who recognized the evils of big government, godless humanism and Marxist economic principles. They recognized that the ideals of Jimmy Carter and his political party were anathema to freedom and prosperity. And they refused to send Carter back to the White House for a second term.

Not so with Barack Obama, whose presidency is so failed that it makes the Titanic look like a fender bender. You could understand why Obama was elected in 2008 after eight years of George W. Bush, and during a calamitous economic time. But 2012? Even a circus clown should've been able to defeat Obama in that election. 

But Obama was reelected because half of the nation was woefully ignorant of his character and too apathetic to bother finding out. Obama's reelection was blamed on the alleged five million or so conservatives who stayed home that year and failed to vote. But in reality, they didn't exist. Because if they did, Obama would've been a one-term president like Carter. 

If you have your doubts about the apathy and ignorance of today's Americans, then consider this:

A national survey by FindLaw.com, a legal information Web site, found that nearly two-thirds of Americans can't name any of the nine members of the Supreme Court of the United States. In fact, results show that only 34 percent of Americans can name any member of the nation's highest court, and only one percent can correctly name all nine justices.

That's tragic. Why? Because that's a barometer of the ignorance of today's American voters. But wouldn't Beck argue that he's trying to overcome such ignorance by informing the voters? If that's his argument, then it's a misguided one.

Ignorance is the first cousin of apathy. If people possess a debauched worldview that makes hedonistic pleasure sacrosanct and the only thing worth living for, then they won't have any use for patriotism or Christian values or moral decency. Rather, they'll embrace politicians who promise to protect their "freedoms" while punishing those who would deny those freedoms.

Glenn Beck wants to elect Ted Cruz as America's next president so Cruz can select a conservative Supreme Court justice to replace the recently deceased Antonin Scalia, who was a staunch conservative. However, conservatism and the return to a prevailing Judeo-Christian worldview in America doesn't begin with SCOTUS or the presidency.

It only begins when the Christian church in America wakes up from the spiritual coma it's been in for the past 50 years. As the apostle Paul so aptly wrote: "No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer. Similarly, anyone who competes as an athlete does not receive the victor’s crown except by competing according to the rules." (2 Timothy 2:4-5)

If Glenn Beck and other conservative Christians who are concerned about America's slide into moral depravity would heed those words, then they wouldn't be wasting their time with ballot box evangelism. Rather, they'd be trying to change a culture that's been contaminated by the rot of secular humanism for an awfully long time.

Good Motives and Bad Venues

Mike Huckabee

Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas and until recently a Fox TV host is contemplating running for president. And I wish him all the luck in the world because he's going to need it.

Don't get me wrong. I like Mike Huckabee and I think he'd make a fabulous president. But then again, considering who's occupying the Oval Office, just about anyone would be better than the president we currently have.

Huckabee has a lot of supporters who'd like to see him elected as America's 45th president. They're tired of the relentless leftist agenda that's destroyed America's moral infrastructure like a giant wrecking ball.  And certainly, American leftists have done considerable damage to traditional institutions such as marriage, education and the sanctity of life. 

But the reason why they've committed such destruction on these and other institutions is because they've been allowed to. When the Christian church began to abandon its responsibility in the 19th century as a beacon to the world, that created a huge moral vacuum that humanists quickly filled.

Though it took about a century, the leftist agenda began to manifest itself in the counterculture and sexual revolutions of the 1960s, and in terrible Supreme Court decisions such as Roe v. Wade (1973) that legalized infanticide. 

The leftist agenda has produced the colossal welfare state that's ruined personal incentive; dumbed down millions of people and created generational dependency on government. 

Leftists have destroyed America's educational system that was once the best in the world. They've codified sexual immorality through the education and media industries, and they've anathematized personal responsibility by encouraging all sorts of destructive behavior and then making victims of those who are damaged by that behavior.

And so, many Christians are convinced that America's relentless moral slide can easily be fixed by electing a Christian president. They dream of another Ronald Reagan who would reverse the moral slide and turn America back around. And they believe that Mike Huckabee is that man. 

However, if Mike Huckabee chooses to run, he's not going to be elected. He won't even win the Republican primary. Too many Americans--including those who claim to be Christians--don't want a man with a Christian worldview in the White House. And certainly, America's secular media will destroy anyone who espouses a Judeo-Christian worldview.

Though Huckabee has been careful to eschew controversial rhetoric when he discusses his Christian worldview, the secular media has already begun to paint him as a narrow-minded religious zealot. From the Associated Press (AP): "Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on Sunday said being gay is akin to choosing to drink alcohol or use profanity - lifestyle choices he says are appealing to others but not to him."

Actually, Huckabee didn't make such a comparison, but the AP decided to do it for him. Here's what he actually said: "I don't chuck people out of my circle or out of my life because they have a different point of view. I don't drink alcohol, but, gosh, a lot of my friends, maybe most of them, do. You know, I don't use profanity, but, believe me, I have got a lot of friends who do."

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GOP_2016_HUCKABEE

That's just the proverbial tip of the iceberg. If Huckabee runs and starts building some momentum, you can be sure that the rhetoric will get much worse. He'll probably be compared to notorious mass murderers such as Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin and Genghis Khan.  

If Huckabee and his supporters truly want to reverse America's slide, then they can start by changing the culture from the ground up. They can make Christianity relevant once again to a godless world that views religion as an outdated institution. That's the way it's done--and the only way it's done.

But it won't be done by politics. Ballot box evangelism is a cheap and lazy way to transform a morally decrepit culture. And it never works.

If he was alive today, the apostle Paul would probably tell Mike Huckabee and his supporters this: "Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer. Similarly, anyone who competes as an athlete does not receive the victor’s crown except by competing according to the rules. The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops. Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this." (2 Timothy 2:3-7)

Indeed. If the culture is strong, it will produce men of sound character who will make good decisions. But if the culture is bad, it will produce wicked leaders who make terrible decisions. Thus, the church needs to transform the culture on the street rather than at the ballot box.