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Letter: Are you one of the ‘Don’ts?’ (April 12, 2023)

Editor:

In America’s current scandals, high crimes, tragedies, and combative rhetoric, we see highly threatening developments: economic, military, political, social, medical, educational, and more.

Like depth charges, these reverberate deeper than our own thinking or networking capabilities can fathom or resolve in our own strength, even if we all agreed, which we do not.

Each subsequent follow-on adds to an overall ominous wartime shroud. Where do we go for help?

Clearly, humankind is not in total control.

In 2021 the first of three national surveys by George Barna, who has conducted such surveys yearly during the past three decade, found that only 6% of American adults have a biblical worldview.

What that means, according to Barna, is that “[A] shared consensus of beliefs and values no longer exists. We are moving into a very different culture where people are saying, ‘I don’t want the Bible, I don’t want God, and I don’t want the church.’”

America’s dominant worldview is what has been called “syncretism” which is not one view, but rather “a disparate, irreconcilable collection of beliefs” that people paste together to suit themselves.

A second survey concluded: America’s most popular worldview is what can be called “moralistic therapeutic deism.” This worldview includes: “’belief’ in a God who remains distant from people’s lives” and “the universal purpose of life is being happy and feeling good about oneself.”

This is not a biblical faith.

The third survey found that Millenials (born 1981 – 1996) are “substantially more likely” than previous generations to “reject biblical principles altogether in favor of more worldly spiritual perspectives and practices.”

Significantly, 43% of American Millennials are considered “Don’ts” in Barna’s research, meaning they Don’t believe or Don’t know or Don’t care if God exists.

America, overall, now has a rapidly growing group called The “Don’ts” (those who don’t believe, don’t know, or don’t care if God exists). The “Don’ts” have grown from only 12% of the nation’s total population in 2011 to 34% in 2021.

In the Bible, we find an example of a major, reoccurring theme throughout history: “In those days, there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 21:25)

Here the Bible describes deep apostasy and shows us that, unchanged, the human heart is evil and, without restraint, that inherent evil regresses to unimaginable depths.

If we try to follow our own imaginations, we become a “Don’t” and debase ourselves.

We are not exempt. We (in all our factions) naturally strive to free ourselves from all blame by insisting and objecting, until we have, one by one, been openly convicted.

The Bible teaches all humans are born alienated from God by sin. The chief symptom is the un-religion called atheism.

As the Savior from sin, Jesus Christ can empower us to live in godly fellowship with God. When we are born from above (see John chapter 3) then we will seek those things which are above.

Pete Ready

Albany

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