Today’s  blog takes direct aim at our “cultural elites,” including both self-styled elites and governmental elites.  The catalyst for this was a statistic I heard coming from the Barna Group.  The polling organization was doing surveys on homosexual marriage, freedom of religion, etc.  One poll found that about 20% of all adults surveyed believed that religious institutions should be required to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies.  Likewise 20% believed that clergy members should be required to perform same-sex weddings.  That was a shock at first.  But there is more.  52% believed that extending marriage rights to same-sex couples was morally right—that’s “morally” right.  Now there was some good news in the survey too.  About 81% believed Christians should still be allowed to teach and practice their doctrines regarding homosexuality and marriage.  (Read the study at https://www.barna.org/barna-update/culture/723).  But just to stay with the bad news today, the numbers above, if correct, paint a pretty ugly picture of how far our culture has come.  There are other statistics not part of this Barna survey.  If you want those, dealing with marriage and divorce, out-of-wedlock births, crime rates, and attitudes in general, you can read Charles Murray’s fairly new book, Coming Apart, or go to any number of survey sites.  None of the statistics look all that good.  This one was just the latest in light of the recent Supreme Court decision.

The question for today is:  Why has it moved so far so fast?  The answer is complicated.  It didn’t happen “all at once” like the disintegration of Holmes’ “Wonderful One-Hoss Shay.”  It really began slowly about 250 years ago under the influence not only of Enlightenment emphasis on scientific reason and a critical spirit (or skeptical) about anything traditional, but also with the undermining of the Bible itself as inspired, inerrant and authoritative.  But in recent decades the trend seemed to accelerate.  Voices became more strident.  Small groups demanded “rights.”  Rights turned to outright demands and then to oppression of others in subtle, even legal, ways.  Some of that was due to the interesting and complex influence of Postmodernism, itself a seeming contradiction to the Enlightenment, but which some scholars see as really a culmination.  I tend to agree.  But on to the people behind the transformation.

If “change” is going to happen, it generally must be driven by someone who is respected, or some respected body of people.  At the risk of “offending” social historians who are convinced that social change occurs from the “bottom up,” I will dissent.  I believe it usually starts with the “intelligentsia” or “elites” at the top.  These may be, as they are in the United States, clergy and theologians, journalists, academics and educators, politicians, cultural critics, entertainers of various kinds, and some others.  Elites are people that other people look to for guidance or listen to just because they are famous.  They are in a minority, but often have a great deal either of authority or influence.  They aren’t all famous, though many are.  And they aren’t all well-educated, either formally or informally, though many people think they are—hence I call them elites.  How does this work?

Before I answer that with an example, let me say I am not trying to be a doomsayer.  But I do believe our moral decline in this era (it has happened before) is peculiarly different than any since ancient times.  It might not be as bad as others, but it is hard to tell yet.  Nevertheless, it is tangible and I believe, a definite decline.

Let’s take the example of education.  Never underestimate the influence of educators, in schools and universities.  They have a special appeal to young people already questioning many things and can make a powerful case to overturn long-held beliefs to these relatively unformed young people.  Not only that, but consider the fact that so many parents have abdicated their responsibilities to their children to teach them properly (not just in the ways of the Lord and Scripture, but in all facets of life, which are after all also part of God’s Kingdom).  Young people are essentially at the mercy of their “expert teachers.”  Consider further that public education in general (not every instance) in its content has been so influenced by the Progressive Era education reformers, whose ideas ran counter to traditional religiously-based ideas in education.  John Dewey “deserves” more credit than he sometimes gets for his influence in public education.  But it isn’t just Dewey.  As religious influences were slowly removed, the vacuum left room for many kinds of more secular influences.  Curriculum changed, teacher education changed, and voila, after so many years we suddenly notice the outcomes of the slow-working changes.

I submit that at too many schools and colleges, ethical education, in theory and practice, has gone pretty much all the way to relativism.  Where one still sees attempts at least the practical expressions of ethics (certain basic rules, etc.) these seem to be but vestiges used for pragmatic reason and which may eventually fall by the wayside.

What then do too many students come away with, reinforced by other types of elites?

1. Ignorance of our Constitution and its rationale.
2. Skepticism about truth, right and goodness.
3. Intolerance (despite the false advertisement that schools are teaching tolerance)
4. Religious bigotry, perhaps due to complete lack of exposure to true religious beliefs.
5. Ethical relativism or perhaps, just plain hedonism, sometimes nihilism, along with moral confusion.
6. Idolatry in the form of statism, environmentalism, etc.
7. Historical ignorance (dooming all too many to repeat the worst mistakes of the past)
8. Outright hostility to markets and business, which is inculcated into them at many points.
9. Inability to think logically, despite the claim of school to teach “critical thinking.”
10. Loss of love of learning, replaced by a strange dogmatism of the Left.
11. Inability to take responsibility.
12. And, I almost forgot, our youth have been taught to be offended at pretty much anything.

These are a few of the results I have seen and heard about from friends and relatives.  Again I am not saying that all teachers or schools are a problem.  But too many are. And even where teachers and local schools are well-meaning, they may be hamstrung by curricula that undermine Christian values at all points and that are required to be used.

The other elites—journalists and entertainers especially—have a prime pride of place among young people, and their influence is equally powerful—and dangerous.  Lacking the skills and orientations I mentioned in connection with the list above, many young people fall prey easily to the propagandistic voices of these “icons.”

What I have said does not mean that Christians are prefect in these areas.  We must do am much better job addressing the issues that appeal to young people and frame our answers in terms of a carefully-built biblical worldview.  At the same time, we ought to take their questions seriously and be willing to address them as serious inquiries, but with proper guidance.  Families—mothers and fathers—must make time and effort to do take primary and ultimate responsibility for the intellectual, moral, and spiritual development of our children.  Perhaps this is the biggest failing of all, even among Evangelical Christians.  It is time we stopped leaving our work for the world to do—and which it will gladly do—and do what God calls each parent to do.

Churches bear responsibility also.  The world has a strong pull.  It is also much better “packaged” to be attractive.  But “pretty packaging” is no match (in more cases than not) when churches and families are doing together what they ought to be doing in nurturing children.

Don’t leave God’s world to the elites.  It is His world and deserves our best efforts by His gracious power.