Some Christians have been distressed enough at the evil that is growing in our society to have attacked some aspect of it – abortion, the homosexual agenda, secularization of the schools, etc. But each of these aspects, along with the corruption, is merely a symptom of the nation’s having abandoned God. To attack the symptoms is to seek for palliatives rather than the remedy. “National transformation will come from the nation, not just the president.” Brown offers no reason to expect the church collectively to reverse the centuries-long decline in its influence on the culture. He talks of “pragmatic” hope, but not pragmatic penetential prayers seeking God’s direction – for a divided and biblically illiterate church first.

Why should we be amazed that pagans are behaving like pagans? Shouldn’t we be looking at Bible-believers first? Entire denominations have quietly abandoned belief in the authority of the Bible, and in many churches pastors are too timid to discuss the corruption we know is out there – and “in here.” Barna says the divorce rate among “born-again” Christians is not far below that of the rest of the nation, and fornication and addiction to pornography among the “born-again” is disgraceful. So is the ignorance of what the Bible says among many pew-sitters (and, I will conjecture, many Tea Party patriots), who can rattle off details of their favorite sports team or entertainer but can’t give a coherent presentation of the Gospel.

The “national transformation” has already occurred – much of it in the lifetime of people today. It isn’t just a matter of political doctrine – statism vs. freedom. Everywhere one looks in the U.S. one finds rampant corruption and dissumulation: unions, multinational corporations, banks, Government-sponsored enterprises and regulatory agencies, bought-off legislators, the educational system, the corporate-financed news organizations that filter and spin the news.

A number of new reformation-minded kings of Judah found themselves unable to bring about national transformation. The time came when God announced that He had determined to use “my servant Nebuchadnezzar” to take Judah captive and destroy Jerusalem.Three times He told Jeremiah not to pray for the good of His people, because He would not listen. Where are today’s Jeremiahs who are announcing what they have heard from God? Where are the Daniels confessing publicly the sins of the leaders of the Christian church for the past centuries as the church’s influence in all of the countries of the West has dwindled? God sent the people of Israel and Judah into exile because of their apostasy. What might His plans be for the people of America now?

We should not be surprised at the failure of the Moral Majority to make a lasting difference in American politics. Mr. Brown’s advice not to put our trust in a political savior is biblical: “Do not put your trust in princes, Nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help. His spirit departs, he returns to his earth; In that very day his plans perish. Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, Whose hope is in the Lord his God.” That is as true for the “complicated and convoluted American political system” as for ancient Israel. Apart from God’s regeneration, people don’t change.

As for the leaders, Jesus said to their ancestors “you do what you have heard from your father… you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth… Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!” (John 8:38-45).

Jesus said that the devil “comes only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10). The Bible also calls the devil “the god of this age” who “has blinded the...

Mr. Limbaugh,

I haven’t seen any comments regarding these paragraphs in your essay on “Enviro-thugs.”

"Perhaps the culpability of many rank-and-file leftists should be understood in light of their mind-numbed credulity over the alarmists' claims and the Draconian solutions they offer to avert their mythical Armageddon. These leftist sheep seem engaged in a chimerical search for significance apart from God, whose existence their worldview rejects but for whom their hearts cry out in a self-muted cacophony.

"But the leaders of the movement are not so innocent. Their sinister intent is to fundamentally restructure the global economy and its allocation of resources, with an eye, ultimately, to one-world government --...

RIFT:

As an atheist you are in a distinct minority in the US, and even more so, I suspect, on TH. You're welcome to comment on what I say, but why demean me with the name-calling? Don't you think that is rather "childlike"? You say that "adults... are having a substantive conversation," but I couldn't find anything substantive in what you posted.

I happen to have a Ph.D. from the Univerity of California at Berkeley, (chemistry, not philosophy or theology), so I'm not ignorant nor childlike, nor do I believe in magic.

What do you find so threatening in what I said? Why so hostile? Are you a bigot? Are you engaging in hate speech? I won't flag your posting as offensive, but did you intend to offend me? You seem to...

Matt:

Regarding the treatment you received for telling the truth, Jesus helps us understand the behavior of sinful men when he says (John 3:19-21)"this is the condemnation [or judgment], that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.

Jesus tells us that Satan is a murder, a liar, and the “father of lies,” (John 8:44) who has come to “steal, kill, and destroy.” (John 10:10)

Those who believe that the end justifies the means may...

It's not that euphemisms have vanished. The taboos have just changed. Every society has taboos.

Use of some pejoratives in our culture would elicit a torrent of criticism, and possibly even calls for boycott or censure. How about the six-letter "F-word" that stands for a homosexual? Or "pervert?" How about "cripple" used to refer to someone who is mobility challenged?

Just think of all the commentaries bemoaning how political correctness has been shoved down our throats. Political correctness means honoring taboos by avoiding saying things that members of the intellectual elite have proscribed.