(Originally written December 3, 2005 in Book 1)
Secular Humanism: Threat & Challenge
Robert E. Webber
1982
Chapter 4 - The Playboy Mentality
The playboy mentality promotes free sex, TV sex and pornography. The playboy mentality has given a rise in drugs, explicit song lyrics, alcohol abuse and homosexuality.
Chapter 5 - The Violent Society
Expressions of violence in our culture:
-War
-Television
-The Family
-Abortion
Christians and secularists may agree on the evils of war, but they do not have the same reasons leading up to the conclusion. Christians should strive for peace because it is in accordance with Christ's teachings.
Violence on TV leads to violence in society.
Without God we are free from accountability. We are free from marital covenants, free from child raising responsibilities and free to pursue all of our selfish ambitions.
Abortion is the ultimate expression of violence being used to solve a problem.
Chapter 6 - The schoolroom nightmare
There are four areas in which secular humanists and Christians clash in the public school system:
- Values clarification
- Sex Education
-Creation vs. Evolution
-Prayer in schools/observance of religious holidays
Public education has overstepped its role and has begun to teach morality or values clarification. Because of the presence of secular humanism in the schools they teach a morally relative version of ethics. Moral absolutes and religious teachings learned by children from their Christian parents are being undermined by the school's morality teachings.
Sex education is a dangerous arena for everyone. Because of the differing views on sex held by the secular humanists and Christians it is important to monitor this closely. It is important for children to learn about sex, but the worldly values taught in public education should be excluded from the curriculum.
Creation vs. evolution is a hot topic in the public school debate. Christians argue that scientific creation should be taught alongside of evolution or that evolution should be only taught as a theory and not fact. Because of the differing views of creation within the Christian community it is not likely that a strictly Christian view of the origin of life will be pushed into the public schools. Young Christians should be encouraged to become science teachers so that evolution will be only taught as a theory.
Prayer in schools is a question of whether the government should protect the freedom of religion or the freedom from religion. Christians should not advocate for token prayers in schools that are more for show than truly religious in nature.
Chapter 7 - The political tangle
The question is how involved should Christians be in using politics as a way of regulating morality. The clash between secularists and Christians over legislating morality is due to the secularists wanting laws to be relative so that people can do what they want, whereas Christians want to legislate against 'sinful acts' for the greater good of society. Homosexuality and their rights fall under the category of moral legislation. Christians want to protect the sanctity of marriage while secularists want to assert an individual's right of choice. A second example of moral legislation is the abortion issue. The U.S. government devalued the unborn child's life and gave it only the value of the carrier's decided value of that unborn child. A third example of this occurs within the laws of marriage. Commonwealth marriages give unmarried couples the rights and benefits of married couples. This new type of relationship undermines the institution of marriage. It gives way to the thought that society's social patterns is what ought to be used in determining what is right and wrong, in lieu of using moral absolutes as the determining factor.
In dealing with the issue of Church and State a Christian must realize the state is a temporary institution, while God is forever. A separate Christian state is nowhere advocated for by Jesus. We are to give unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's.
The state can be used by Satan to undermine the works of Christians.
Without a moral authority over the head of the state, the state becomes the ultimate source of right and wrong. Essentially, the state becomes a god.
Secularism argues that the state is to protect the rights of all individuals and to determine what is right and wrong. Communism, another secular movement, decides what is right for the collective community. Both of these are flawed because what is right can change from ruler to ruler due to shifting values and attitudes.
Christians argue that the function of the state should be to contain the differing institutions and balance their freedoms with a sense of order that is necessary to have a true government. Christians should look at the government as appointed by God, but should not overstep its boundaries to become itself a god. The thing that should be most frightening to Christians is that once a government passes moral legislation that is in conflict with the Christian viewpoint that legislation will soon become the ethical norm.
Chapter 8 Where do we go from here?
Secular humanism and Christian humanism will continue to clash. There are four reasons for this:
1 Human nature is fallen
-Christians believe man is evil by nature due to the fall
-Secular humanists believe in the inherent goodness of man
-"All naïve hopes that individuals will change and society will become better are utopian and false" (Webber, 106).
2 Christ has redeemed the world
-Christians believe that Christ offers salvation to the world
-Secular humanists believe salvation is man's duty to create
3 The Church is the society of the redeemed
-Christians believe this statement
-Secular humanists believe the Church is an enemy of progress
4 The Church is to act as 'salt & light'
-Christians believe and act on this statement
-Secular humanists see Christians as standing in the way of freedom
"The Church should not enter into political and economic alliances that will compromise authentic Christian humanism" (Webber, 109).
"The Church should not seek to accomplish its task in society through political power or legislative force" (Webber, 109).
We should not use America as a tool to spread Christianity throughout the world. The job of evangelism is the Church's. If we are to give that job to America we are going to weaken the Church and to give false premises to the world that Christianity is supposed to use military force to spread the good news.
The Church should instead instruct people on the values and ethics of Christianity and act as an example to the world. The Church needs to wake up, but not use political power to move its agenda.
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