American Renewal Project: Why is the Family Now an Enemy?

 

A leading Christian apologist and cultural theologian, Joseph Boot is the founding pastor of Westminster Chapel in Toronto and the founder of the Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity. Originally from Great Britain, he served with Ravi Zacharias International Ministries for 7 years as an apologist based in England and Canada.   “All cultural and political thought inescapably rests on a given foundation - one religious worldview or another is the frequently unacknowledged basis for all forms of political philosophy,” writes Dr. Boot. “Ultimately, from the scriptural standpoint, either Christ and His Word-revelation provides that foundation, or else the thinking of elites and their revolutionary ideals will assume the role of biblical authority.”1   There is no such thing as ‘neutrality’ in religion, because to reject God is every bit of a religious decision as it is to believe in and embrace God. The reality in America is that either secularism or Christianity - that is, the values/ideology/worldview of one or the other - is going to reign supreme in the public square. If Christians stay home on Election Day - as they unfortunately often do - then secularists will permeate culture by electing their candidates, thereby creating and passing godless legislation, and codifying into law profane values where culture becomes the public manifestation of secular religion.2   The sad fact is that American Christendom throughout the last 100 years abandoned the public square, despite such disregard being in disobedience to Jesus’ ekklesia Kingdom assignment from Matthew 16:18. This neglectful failure to comply has allowed secularism to gain control of the culture, enabling secularists to manipulate and monopolize the cultural levers of power and influence across the nation.   Dr. Boot acknowledges that nothing good could come from this: “If the true foundation of wisdom is missing, if the principal part of knowledge is neglected, then any knowledge structure built upon it is inherently unstable.”3   By making religious secularism America’s official religion in the mid-20th century, the Warren Court [1953-1969] elevated the State to divine status. Religious secularism bows to and abides by the State, while ignoring or rejecting Jehovah God. If American Christendom had maintained its involvement in the public square, the State’s self-serving aggrandizement into a godlike standing of worship and adulation could have been channeled in a direction subservient to God.   A good number of U.S. Supreme Court decisions since the 1960s have aided the State to claim its supposed supremacy over God :   Removal of prayer to Jehovah God from public education in 1962 [Engel v. Vitale]. Removal of the Bible - after 300 years of America’s meteoric rise - from public schools in 1963 [Abington School District v. Schempp]. Fabrication of the constitutional ‘right’ to kill unborn babies in 1973 [Roe v. Wade]. Removal of the Ten Commandments from public schools, courthouses, and government buildings in 1980 [Stone v. Graham]. Constitutional prevarication to exalt, normalize, and codify into law homosexual intercourse and same-sex marriage in 2015 [Obergefell v. Hodges]. Glorification and ‘special rights’ for homosexuals and transgenders in 2020 [Bostock v. Clayton County].   In Obergefell v. Hodges and Bostock v. Clayton County, homosexual intercourse and marriage was exalted and inflated by the U.S. Supreme Court as kosher and legitimate, notwithstanding or perhaps in willful defiance of its Scriptural denunciation as an abomination and wrongdoing. Justices decree by edict as good what God calls evil, thereby passing judgment upon God as they instruct Him and the nation to submit to their prescriptions laid down in law. Those commandments amount to radical idolatry.   With that as background, the Italian politician and journalist Giorgia Meloni [born 1977] is poised to make history by becoming Italy’s first female Prime Minister. The Wall Street Journal wrote of Meloni’s “more-than-hawkish stance on border security, [her] long espoused tough position on abortion, as well as traditional views on family and transgender issues.”4 As a long-awaited blessing and frontal assault on globalism, liberalism, and secularism, we might add.    The Left rushed in instantly to brand Prime Minister-Elect Meloni as “the most far-right government since World War II.” Some of the far-left news outlets even had no qualms about implying a guilty-by-association link to Benito Mussolini, the Italian founder and leader of the National Fascist Party. Tarred with the same brush!   The clash of worldviews will be quite obvious if we listen to what Prime Minister-Elect Giorgia Meloni has to say.

“This is about what we are doing here today. Why is the family an enemy? Why is the family so frightening? There is a single answer to all these questions. Because it defines us. Because it is our identity. Because everything that defines us is now an enemy for those who would like us to no longer have an identity and simply be perfect consumer slaves.   “And so they attack national identity, they attack religious identity, they attack gender identity, they attack family identity. I can’t define myself as Italian, Christian, woman, mother ... No. I must be citizen x, gender x, parent 1, parent 2. I must be a number.   “Because when I am a number, when I no longer have an identity or roots, then I will be the perfect slave at the mercy of financial speculators: the perfect consumer. That’s the reason why ... that’s why we inspire so much fear. That’s why this event inspires so much fear because we do not want to be [just] numbers.   “We will defend the value of the human being ... of every single human being. Because each of us has a unique genetic code that is unrepeatable. And, like it or not, that is sacred. We will defend it, we will defend God, country, and family. Those things that disgust [these] people so much.   “We will defend our freedom because we will never be slaves and simple consumers at the mercy of financial speculators, that is our mission, [and] that is why I came here today.   “Chesterton wrote more than a century ago, ‘Fires will be kindled to testify that two and two make four. Swords will be drawn to prove that leaves are green in summer.’ The time has arrived, we are ready. Grazie [thank you].”   When was the last time that an American politician so perfectly highlighted the all mighty secular powers American Christendom is up against? President Ronald Reagan, perhaps, some 40 years ago?   As to bringing the revolt closer to home, historian William J. Federer spoke at our Missouri pastors’ luncheon last week. He noted how President Franklin D. Roosevelt responded to the Nazi assault on Christian civilization in the mid-20th century by passing out Gideon New Testaments and Psalms to each WW II U.S. soldier.   Federer argues that the ideological Left is now demanding a change of the definition of ‘patriotism’, replacing it with the more sinister sounding ‘nationalism’. By contrast, however, ‘nationalism’ in America entails preserving the nation, guaranteeing that every citizen has God-given rights and allowing each individual the freedom to determine his or her own destiny. We might formulate it as Christian citizenship.   The Left has instituted totalitarianism aka absolutism in America, particularly in its despotic Covid censorship and its all-out assault on and abuse of First Amendment rights. The latter includes the denial of human rights and the intensification of killing preborn babies, the collusion with cultural Marxism’s prominence in pitting race against race in America, and the compulsive obsession with their version of ‘diversity’ and ‘tolerance’.   Enough is enough. Let’s pray that Prime Minister-Elect Giorgia Meloni represents a step forward for freedom, and that she will be a Rahab taking God’s side against the profane culture of secularism.   We continue to pray as Gideons and Rahabs are beginning to stand.   David Lane American Renewal Project